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For the third straight year, Arkansas has earned the right to stay home for the postseason. The 2019 Fayetteville Regional features California, TCU and Central Connecticut State.
Before play begins Friday, HawgBeat is taking a closer look at all three visiting teams. Next up is the No. 4 seed, Central Connecticut…
Record: 30-21 (16-8 NEC)
The Blue Devils won two-thirds of their conference games to finish second in the Northeast Conference. However, they weren’t going to make it to the postseason without receiving the NEC’s automatic bid. That meant Central Connecticut had to knock off top-seed Bryant, which had won five of six regular-season games between the two schools by an average margin of 7.7 runs. Sure enough, after losing to Bryant once, the Blue Devils came out of the loser’s bracket and won back-to-back tight games - 3-1 and 3-2 - over the Bulldogs to win the conference tournament.
Head coach: Charlie Hickey (20th season)
The longest tenured head coach in the Fayetteville Regional, Hickey has been at Central Connecticut State since 2000. Before that, he was the head coach at Providence for three seasons before its baseball program was discontinued. Hickey is 548-483-5 (.531) with the Blue Devils.
Postseason History
This will be the Blue Devils’ sixth trip to the NCAA Tournament and they are still looking for their first win, having lost their first 10 games by an average score of 12.1-3.2.
Four of Central Connecticut’s losses in the NCAA Tournament have been by double digits, including 25-5 and 22-3 losses to UConn (in 2010) and UNLV (in 2003), respectively.
However, in 2017, their last appearance, the Blue Devils trailed No. 6 seed and eventual College World Series participant TCU just 3-1 heading into the bottom of the eighth. They gave up six runs in that inning and answered with five of their own in the ninth to lose 9-6. In the elimination game against Dallas Baptist, Central Connecticut came up one run short in a 6-5 loss.
Common Opponents
Stony Brook
In a midweek game last month, Stony Brook jumped out to a 7-0 lead at Central Connecticut and cruised to a 9-3 victory. Four of the runs the Blue Devils gave up were unearned thanks to three errors.
Earlier in the season, Arkansas hosted Stony Brook and swept the three-game series. The first two games were part of a doubleheader and the Razorbacks squeaked out 3-1 and 4-3 victories. Game 3 wasn’t as close, as Arkansas blew out the Seawolves 15-7.
Projected Starting Lineup
C - Sam Loda (so.): .277/.348/.348, 8 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 25 RBI, 19 BB/32 K, 2-2 SB
1B - TT Bowens (r-so.): .386/.474/.649, 12 2B, 3 3B, 4 HR, 21 RBI, 17 BB/22 K
2B - Chandler Debrosse (r-jr.): .282/.365/.372, 8 2B, 2 HR, 19 RBI, 20 BB/26 K, 1-1 SB
3B - Buddy Dewaine (r-jr.): .279/.384/.337, 8 2B, 1 HR, 27 RBI, 28 BB/44 K, 2-3 SB
SS - Matt Bertochi (so.): .246/.337/.338, 9 2B, 2 3B, 21 RBI, 19 BB/37 K, 3-6 SB
LF - Peyton Stephens (so.): .236/.326/.385, 7 2B, 1 3B, 5 HR, 20 RBI, 22 BB/56 K, 5-8 SB
CF - Chris Kanios (jr.): .233/.300/.286, 2 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 14 RBI, 8 BB/27 K, 7-10 SB
RF - Dave Matthews (jr.): .297/.406/.489, 17 2B, 6 HR, 38 RBI, 32 BB/53 K, 1-3 SB
DH - Jake Siracusa (so.): .256/.333/.438, 10 2B, 5 3B, 4 HR, 24 RBI, 19 BB/55 K, 3-6 SB
The Ace
Central Connecticut doesn’t have a specific ace of its staff, as all three weekend starters have pretty similar numbers…
Sr. Tom Curtin: 5-3, 3.96 ERA, 1.40 WHIP, 5.18 K/9IP, .292 opp. avg.
Jr. Brandon Fox: 3-5, 3.84 ERA, 1.58 WHIP, 4.59 K/9IP, .317 opp. avg.
Sr. Patrick Mitchell: 6-3, 4.58 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, 5.35 K/9IP, .283 opp. avg.
The Blue Devils’ Friday night guy Curtin, who has been even better than those numbers indicate. He made a couple of starts earlier in the year in which he tired in the seventh inning and gave up a lot of runs before being removed. Take out those two starts and his ERA drops to a much more respectable 3.18.
However, Curtin did pitch twice in the NEC Tournament, throwing a shutout against Wagner on Thursday and then turning around and giving up two earned runs in 5 2/3 innings in the championship game against Bryant on Sunday. That earned him Tournament MVP honors, but could mean he won’t be able to pitch Friday against Arkansas.
Fox has been Central Connecticut’s Game 2 starter and also pitched twice in the tournament, throwing an eight-inning complete game on Friday and 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief Sunday.
That means the freshest guy might be Mitchell, who went eight innings on Saturday. He threw a shutout against Wagner earlier this month and actually earned first-team All-NEC accolades despite being the No. 3 starter.
Central Connecticut also has a couple of key bullpen arms to be award of: seniors Mike Appel and Jared Gallagher. Appel is 6-0 with a 2.31 ERA, 41 strikeouts and only 19 walks in 39 innings this season. He has three saves, too, but the closer is Gallagher, who has nine saves, a 1.72 ERA, 37 strikeouts and 16 walks in 36 2/3 innings. Gallagher was a second-team All-NEC selection.
(UPDATE: Fox will start Friday's game against Arkansas.)
The Stud
There is only one player in Central Connecticut’s starting lineup hitting above .300, but he is hitting well above that mark.
Since returning from an injury on April 10, TT Bowens is hitting .386. Nearly half of his hits - 19 of 44 - have been for extra bases, giving him a .649 slugging percentage, and he’s gone hitless just four times in 29 games.
That production, despite playing only about half of the season, earned him a spot on the All-NEC second team.
Arkansas vs. the NEC
The only other team Arkansas has faced out of the NEC is Bryant. It is 4-1 all-time against the Bulldogs, but that one loss was costly.
Bryant was the No. 3 seed at the Manhattan Regional in 2013 and knocked off the Razorbacks 4-1 in the opening game of the regional. That sent Arkansas to the loser’s bracket, where it eventually won a rematch with the Bulldogs 12-3, but it was too big of a hill to climb to beat host Kansas State.
Just two years ago, Bryant visited Baum-Walker Stadium and the Razorbacks got even more revenge, winning all three games by a combined score of 40-21.
Stat Comparison - Arkansas | Central Connecticut (national rank, out of 297 teams)
RPI: No. 6 | No. 184
Batting average: .299 (23rd) | .260 (189th)
Slugging percentage: .491 (10th) | .370 (209th)
On-base percentage: .398 (19th) | .354 (194th)
Home runs: 78 (12th) | 26 (t-228th)
Runs/game: 7.5 (16th) | 5.7 (150th)
ERA: 3.96 (49th) | 4.32 (87th)
WHIP: 1.27 (23rd) | 1.49 (140th)
Strikeouts/9 innings: 9.6 (23rd) | 5.8 (288th)
Strikeout-to-walk ratio: 2.48 (40th) | 1.73 (198th)
Fielding percentage: .970 (114th) | .968 (144th)
Stolen bases/game: 1.22 (88th) | 0.59 (t-262nd)
