University of Connecticut Athletics
Baseball Falls Short To Central Connecticut, 2-1
5/3/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
NEW BRITAIN, CT (May 3) - All of the University of Connecticut baseball team's last six games have been decided by two runs or less, and Thursday afternoons contest against Central Connecticut State in New Britain, Conn., was no exception as the Huskies were an out away from holding on before Nick Macellaro sent a shot into deep left center to score Kevin Rival and give the Blue Devils the 2-1 victory. With the loss, UConn falls to 24-23 while CCSU stretched its record to 25-19.
After four and a half scoreless frames, Central got on the board when Chip Rourke got on first with one away in the bottom half of the fifth and then made it over to second on a Jeff Fulchino (So., Hollis, NH) wild pitch. A second wild pitch would send Rourke over to third before he crossed home when John Mayette singled into right.
The Huskies tied it up in the eighth on a Mike Mocerino (Fr., Northboro, MA) sac fly into left that scored Dan Trubia (So., Tolland, CT), but that would be all the runs UConn would bring in as it went to the bottom of the ninth in that fashion. Fulchino looked as if he might escape after Tim D'Aquila popped up to him and Robert Hosgood flew out to Mike Scott (Jr., Darien, CT) for the second out.
Scott was one of two UConn players to turn in a pair of hits as he went 2-for-4 and Trubia went 2-for- 3. The game, which saw Scott square off against his former head coach Charlie Hickey who was at Providence before CCSU, also saw Scott bring his season hits total to 75 to pull along side Brian Majeski (1994) on the all-time single season hit list.
Fulchino tossed a complete game seven hitter with two earned runs and struck out four as he move to 4-6, while Chris Piryk got the win after replacing Justin Cerbone in the ninth. Cerbone held the Huskies in check for seven innings and then allowed an unearned run in the eighth. Piryk then set the Huskies down in order in the ninth.
Connecticut returns to BIG EAST action this weekend as it heads into its final regular season BIG EAST series against Notre Dame May 5-6 in South Bend, IN. The Irish check in as the number one team in the nation in both the Collegiate Baseball and Baseball America polls this week and are second behind Louisiana State in the USA Today rankings. After dropping one to Western Michigan yesterday, 7-6, the Irish are now 41-7-1 on the season.
Central Connecticut State, 2, UConn, 1 Connecticut (24-23) 000 000 010 - 1 7 0 CCSU (25-19) 000 010 001 - 2 7 2
Jeff Fulchino and Mike Leonard. Justin Cerbone, Chris Piryk and Chip Rourke. Win-Piryk (4-0), Loss-Fulchino (4-6). E-D'Aquila (CCSU), Macellaro (CCSU). 2B-Scott (UC), Hess (UC), Landeen (CCSU), Macellaro (CCSU). DP-UC-2, CCSU-1 LOB-UC-6, CCSU-5
