BOX SCORE
New Britain, Conn. – Despite being outhit by an 11-3 margin, the visiting Hartford Hawks scored a 3-2 victory over Nutmeg State rival Central Connecticut State University on Wednesday afternoon at the CCSU Baseball Field. Hartford improves to 11-35 for the season while CCSU drops to 24-22 overall. The victory for Hartford completes a sweep of a two-game series against the Blue Devils with a 5-2 victory in the first meeting back on March 7 in West Hartford.
In today's game, all three of the Hawks hits came from different players with rookie Trey Stover and senior's Simon Kudernatsch and Chris Suchy all scattering hits. Stover and Suchy's hits were both doubles and both came in the eighth inning as Stover drove in Brendan Behm who pinch ran for Suchy after he led off the inning with a two bagger. Rob Meerman and Behm each finished with an RBI, with Behm's providing the game winning run as he worked a bases loaded walk in the top of the ninth inning.
Junior Ryan Carter earned the victory on the hill, his first as a member of the Hawks, pitching three innings in relief of starter Zach Ferris. Ferris finished five innings of work allowing one run on five hits while walking and striking out one batter. Carter worked three innings on the hill and also allowed one run on five hits. He also walked one and struck out two batters. Rookie lefthander Austin Barnes scored the Hawks fourth save of the season and his first wearing the scarlet and white. Barnes pitched the ninth inning and allowed one hit and struck out one batter.
Hartford broke a scoreless two inning start to the game by making a led off walk, issued to Suchy, in the top of the third pay off. Suchy advanced to the opposite corner on a pair of wild pitches before scoring on an infield groundout from Meerman.
CCSU answered back in the fourth inning and was able to take their only lead of the game with another single run in the sixth inning after Mitch Wells led off the inning with a single up the middle. Wells eventually scored on an error issued to the pitcher on the second of back-to-back singles as the first three batters in the inning reached safely.
The Hawks tied the game in the eighth inning combining the only two doubles of the game to knot the score. After leading off the inning with Suchy's double, Stover worked a two-out double down the left field line which allowed Behm, who pinch ran for Suchy, to score easily from third after taking third on an infield groundout off the bat of first baseman Alex Bulger.
In the top of the ninth, Kudernatsch led off the inning with a single of the middle and after advancing to third on wild pitches, the Blue Devils intentionally walked to batters which loaded the bases before a third walk was issued to Behm allowing Kudernatsch to score.
Hartford returns to the diamond for a four-game weekend series against the visiting UMBC Retrievers, the second of three-straight weekends with league series. The Hawks and Retrievers will open the four-game set on Saturday with a doubleheader scheduled to start at 12:00 p.m.
