Providence College Athletics
Friar Baseball Loses 5-3 to Central Connecticut
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 27, 1998
NEW BRITIAN, Conn. - The Providence College Friars took to the road on Monday hoping to find their offensive attack which has deserted them in the last week. Three weeks ago, the Friars led the nation in hitting. On Monday, they could muster just five hits off Central Connecticut ace, Adam Poturnicki, who went the distance to defeat the Friars, 5-3.
Poturnicki, scattered five hits, gave up three runs with only one of those earned. He walked four and constantly got himself out of trouble with 12 strikeouts, nine of them with the batter looking. The win improved the junior righthander to 7-3 on the season. It was his fifth complete game of the year. PC starter, freshman George Colli pitched four innings, giving up just four hits. Five walks hurt him as he fell to 0-1 on the year. Senior Doug Wall pitched the final four innings giving up a pair of unearned runs.
The Friars opened the scoring with a pair of unearned runs in the second inning. Jeremy Sweet bunted for a base hit and when third baseman Tim McKenzie's throw sailed into right, Sweet was on third. Pat Carey followed with a grounder to shortstop that was booted and Sweet scored. After a passed ball allowed Carey to reach second, Mike Pandolfo singled home Carey and the Friars led 2-0.
An rbi single by CCSU's Matt O'Gorman drove in Danny Graham from second to make it 2-1 after four innings. The Blue Devils went ahead to stay in the fifth. Jason Maule bunted for a hit and then stole second base. Felix Ramos, Jr. singled to left to move Maule to third. Colli was relieved by Wall. Second baseman Ken Pruchnicki singled home Maule to make it 2-2 and after loading the bases, Ryan Solesky grounded out to drive Ramos in with the go-ahead run.
Central would make it 5-2 in the bottom of the seventh. McKenzie got on via an error and scored on Ryan Solesky's double. O'Gorman followed with an rbi single and the Blue Devils led 5-2. Coley O'Donnell drove in the Friars last run with a double in the eighth, but that was as close as the Friars would get on the day as Central Connecticut prevailed, 5-3.
The loss drops the Friars to 27-17-1 overall while Central Connecticut is 20-19 for the year. The Friars are back in action on Tuesday when they travel to Northeastern for a single game in Boston.
Providence (27-17-1) 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 - 3 - 5 - 2 Cent. Connectiocut (20-19) 0 0 0 1 2 0 2 0 X - 5 -10 - 3 PC - George Colli (0-1), Doug Wall (5) and Dan Conway. CCSU - Adam Poturnick (7-3) and StephenBennett.
