April 9, 2004

Box Score

BRIDGEPORT, CT - Senior hurler Lew Pappariella hurled a complete game and Tim D'Aquila (Middletown, CT) scorched a three-run homer and drove in four, to lead the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils to a 7-2 win in the first game of a Northeast Conference baseball doubleheader Friday. The Blue Devils completed the sweep with an 8-3 win in the nightcap.

In the first game, SHU starting pitcher Dan Scott breezed through the first two innings, striking out six CCSU batters. Keith Stegbauer led off the Central third with a double to left center. Rob Hosgood then drew a walk in front of D'Aquila who hit a long homer over the left centerfield fence to give the Blue Devils a 3-0 lead.

Phil Rothkugel (Bristol, CT) became the fourth straight Blue Devil to reach base in the inning with single to right. Scott got the next batter to pop out to the mound, but Tom Pezzello (Waterford, CT) singled to put runners on the corners. Sophomore Matt Memoli (Shelton, CT), who finished the game with four hits, singled to score Rothkugel and extend the lead to 4-0.

The Blue Devils put up three more in the top of the fourth when the first three batters of the inning reached off Scott. Dan Tarnowski started the rally with a single and Scott then hit Stegbauer. Hosgood followed with an RBI single to chase Scott from the game. Adam Dinihanian came in for the Pioneers and gave up an RBI ground out to D'Aquila. Junior John Blaze (Trumbull, CT) gave the Blue Devils a 7-0 lead with a double to left, scoring Hosgood.

Pappariella retired the first 11 batters he faced, before Jamie Schilkowski (Shelton, CT) recorded the first SHU hit with a single to center. Pappariella retired the first two batters in the fifth but the Pioneers ripped off four consecutive hits to put a pair of runs on the board. Jay Monti and Sean Kammerer hit back-to-back doubles to plate the first, and Tim Lantz drove home the second with a single to right.

In game two, CCSU jumped on Pioneer starter Eric Bushor (Uncasville, CT) for six runs in the first two innings, highlighted by a two-run homer to right center by Hosgood in the first inning. Hosgood finished the doubleheader with five hits. D'Aquila had the biggest hit in a four-run Blue Devil second inning with a two-run double.

The Pioneers got an unearned run back in the second on a sacrifice fly by Kammerer that scored Anthony Diaz who had doubled and gone to third on a CCSU error. SHU cut the Blue Devil lead to 6-2 with a run in the fourth on an RBI single by Diaz.

Central got one of the runs back in the fifth with three straight hits, capped by an RBI single by Pezzello.

Freshman Mark Peterson went the distance on the mound for Central, allowing seven hits and striking out three to raise his record to 4-1.