Ava Cino Slams Four Home Runs In Doubleheader Split With Stonehill

CCSU's Ava Cino blasted a total of four home runs on the afternoon, including a walk-off, two run shot with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning in game one, as the host Blue Devils split a Northeast Conference doubleheader with the visiting Stonehill College Skyhawks, winning game one 10-9, and falling in the nightcap, 6-3.  With the split, the Blue Devils are now 16-25 overall and 11-6 in conference play this season.  Stonehill moves its record to 11-28 overall, and the Skyhawks are now 3-11 in the NEC.

Game One vs. Stonehill| BOX SCORE

Score:  CCSU 10, Stonehill 9-8 inns.
Records: CCSU (16-24, 11-5 NEC), Stonehill (10-28, 2-11 NEC)
Location: CCSU Softball Field |New Britain, Conn.

Game Two vs. Stonehill| BOX SCORE

Score:  Stonehill 6, CCSU 3
Records: CCSU (16-25, 11-6 NEC), Stonehill (11-28, 3-11 NEC)
Location: CCSU Softball Field |New Britain, Conn.

KEY MOMENTS FROM SATURDAY'S GAME ONE WIN:

• Stonehill grabbed a 1-0 lead with a leadoff home run in the top of the first, but CCSU answered in the bottom of the inning with a two-run homer off the bat of Reagan Vunak to take a 2-1 advantage.
• The Skyhawks immediately tied the game at 2-2 with another solo homer in the top of the second.
• The Blue Devils erupted for five runs in the bottom of the second to take a 7-2 lead on a solo homer by Ava Cino, and RBI-single by Ashley Viesta and three-run homer by Reagan Vunak, her second home run in as many innings.  Vunak now has four homers this season and finished with five runs batted in the opener.
• Cino would then increase Central's lead to 8-2 with her second home run of the day, another solo shot in the third inning.
• Trailing 8-2, Stonehill would battle back to tie the game in the top of the seventh inning at 8-8 and take a 9-8 lead in the top of the eighth inning setting up Ava Cino's walk-off heroics in the opener.
• Down to their last out, CCSU's Abby Meehan singled to rightfield, and Cino then launched her third homer of the game to centerfield to give her team the 10-9 extra innings victory.
• 10 runs scored, 17 hits and five home runs in Friday's opener by the Blue Devils are all single-game season highs.
• Reagan Vunak with four, Ava Cino and Ashley Viesta with three plus Kassandra (KC) Machado and Joslyn Teal with two; all had multi-hit games in the opener.
• Liz Hamilton earned win number 11 of the season in the pitching circle in game one working all eight innings.

KEY MOMENTS FROM GAME TWO ON SATURDAY:

• As they did in the opener, Stonehill scored first in game two pushing across two runs in the top of the first.
• CCSU cut the deficit to 2-1 in the bottom of the opening inning of the nightcap on an RBI-single by Kassandra (KC) Machado.
• The Skyhawks added a run in the top of the third to increase their lead to 3-1.
• The Blue Devils tied things up at 3-3 in the bottom of the fourth inning on a solo home run by Ava Cino, her fourth homer of the day and sixth of the season, and an RBI-single by Ashlyn Desaulniers.
• The game stayed deadlocked at 3-3 until the top of the seventh inning when Stonehill scored three runs to grab a 6-3 lead which proved to be the final score.
• As a team, CCSU banged out nine more hits in game two led by two apiece from by Ashlyn Desaulniers, Reagan Vunak and Skylar Warn.
• Alina Varga (5-12) took the loss in game two working a complete game in which she gave up six runs on eight hits with one strikeout and four walks.

UP NEXT:

• The Blue Devils and the Skyhawks close out their three-game weekend NEC series with a single game at 12 noon on Saturday afternoon.  Saturday's contest will serve as CCSU's Senior Day.