Baseball Defeats Stonehill 9-1 Friday; Hosts Adelphi Sunday

SMITHFIELD, RI - Bryant All-American Stephen Sloan (Franklin, Mass.) allowed just one run on seven hits to help lead the Bulldogs to a 9-1 win over Stonehill College in Northeast-10 Conference baseball action Friday at the Bryant Baseball Complex.  Sloan struck out six for the Bulldogs who improve to 19-16 overall (13-10 NE-10). 

Stonehill, with the loss, drops to 18-15 on the season (11-10 NE-10).  The Chieftains, ranked No. 4 in this week's NCAA Northeast Regional Poll, have dropped three straight, but it looked like the visitors might snap the streak in the early going. 

After failing to get a run home in the third following a leadoff double by David Fradette (Goffstown, N.H.), the Chieftains would push a run across in the fourth for  a 1-0  leads as Ryan Halloran (Tyngsboro, Mass.) drove in Sean Lawrence (New Rochelle, N.Y.) from third with a two-out single to right. 

The Bulldogs, winners of two-straight, responded with a run in the bottom half of the inning as Chris Brown (Norwalk, Conn.) scored from third on a passed ball and added another pair of runs in the sixth to take control.  Chris Neil (Cambridge, Mass.) led off the inning with a triple and scored on an errant pickoff attempt at third.  Two batters later, Adam Rourke (Rowley, Mass.) homered to left to make it 3-1. 

Stonehill's Matt Mitchell (West Roxbury, Mass.) took the loss while Halloran had a pair of hits for the Chieftains.  Bryant's Paul Novakowski (Prospect, Conn.) continued hit hot streak, going 3-for-3 while Brown also had three hits - plus three RBIs.  Bryant hosts Adelphi for a non-conference doubleheader Sunday at noon.