April 10, 2004

Box Score

BRIDGEPORT, CT - Tom Pezzello (Waterford, CT) went a perfect six-for-six with a pair of RBI, and junior Scott Vitelli (West Haven, CT) threw eight strong innings to pick up his fifth win of the season as the Central Connecticut State University Blue Devils blitzed Sacred Heart University 15-1 in a Northeast Conference baseball game Saturday.

After two scoreless innings, the Blue Devils scored a pair of unearned runs in the third to take a 2-0 lead. With one out, Keith Stegbauer singled and advanced to second on a ground out by Rob Hosgood. He scored on a throwing error by the SHU shortstop on a ball hit by Tim D'Aquila (Middletown, CT) that would have been the third out. D'Aquila went to second on the errant throw and scored on a single by Phil Rothkugel (Bristol, CT).

CCSU, now 18-8-1 overall and 10-2 in the NEC, made it 4-0 in the fifth with two more unearned runs. SHU starter Robert Duell struck out the first Central batter of the inning. He got D'Aquila swinging on what would have been the second out, but the ball got away from the catcher for a passed ball, allowing D'Aquila to reach. Rothkugel ripped a double to deep left center scoring D'Aquila from first. After John Blaze lined out to second, Pezzello singled to score Rothkugel.

The Blue Devils broke it open in the sixth inning with five more runs. D'Aquila drove in the first when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Rothugel followed with an RBI single and the third run scored when Blaze reached on an error. Pezzello then drove in his second run of the game with a single and the fifth scored on an RBI groundout by Matt Memoli.

Sacred Heart, now 2-25, finally got on the board in the bottom of the eighth inning on an RBI single by Greg Delmonico that scored Pete Kandybowicz.

Central Connecticut took advantage of four SHU errors in the ninth inning to put up five more runs. Riggelman and Sean Salvatore (Southington, CT) had RBI singles in the inning for the Blue Devils.