Bulldogs Drop A Pair To Merrimack Saturday

Bulldogs Drop Two To Merrimack 

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. - Junior Rick Sotiropoulos (Ipswitch, Mass.) had five hits on the afternoon to lead Merrimack College to a pair of wins over Bryant University in Northeast-10 baseball action Saturday afternoon. The Warriors (13-19, 9-12 Northeast-10) won game one 3-1 and game two 5-3.

Merrimack took a 2-0 lead in the third inning of game one on a RBI single by senior Jason Schiappa (Seabrook, N.H.) and a fielding error that allowed freshman Bob McCarthy (Chelmsford, Mass.) to score.

Bryant got a run back in the top of the eighth on a sac fly by Paul Novakowski before sophomore Josh Sohn (West Simsbury, Conn.) settled down to retire the side and end the threat. Sohn allowed eight hits and one run in tossing a complete game, notching three strikeouts. Dan Lozeau took the loss for Bryant, allowing nine hits and three runs (two earned) in eight innings of work, striking out four.

In game two, the Bulldogs (12-28, 10-10 Northeast-10) opened the scoring with two runs in the first. Mike Rocco doubled and later scored on a double by Chris Brown to give Bryant a 1-0 lead. Following a walk to Pat McKenna, Mark Dondero singled to right to score Brown to increase the lead to 2-0.

The Warriors got one back in the bottom half of the inning on an RBI single by Sotiropoulos to cut the deficit in half at 2-1. They tied the game in the fourth on an RBI double by Schiappa and took a 3-2 lead in the seventh when Mike Upton issued a bases loaded walk to McCarthy. Freshman Tim Corcoran (Beverly, Mass.) singled in the eighth to score two runs and push the Merrimack lead to 5-2.