Northeast-10 Tournament: Baseball Stays Hot; Downs Top Seed Franklin Pierce and Advances to the Championship Game Sunday
BRYANT BASEBALL
May 12, 2007
Northeast-10 Tournament: Baseball Stays Hot; Downs Top Seed
Franklin Pierce and Advances to the Championship Game Sunday
LOWELL, MASS. – The Bryant baseball team continued
their playoff success, defeating top seed Franklin Pierce 7-3
Saturday afternoon at LeLacheur Field.
With the victory, the Bulldogs seeded third in the Northeast-10
Tournament, advance to the championship game with a 2-0 record in
this tournament and will play Franklin Pierce Sunday at
noon and at 3 p.m. if Bryant loses the first game.
Bryant got on the board early as Nick Campbell (Raynham,
Mass.) doubled down the left-field line, bringing home
Jay Alexander (Simsbury, CT) who was hit by a
pitch earlier in the inning.
The Ravens evened the score in the second on a wild pitch, but
Campbell come up big again in the third singling to center to score
Taylor Ferguson (Charlton, Mass.) with the second
Bulldog run. Catcher Jeff Vigurs (South Windsor,
CT) continued his clutch hitting with a two-out
run-scoring single to left-center that plated Campbell and
increased Bryant’s lead to 3-1.
Cobb escaped a bases-full, no-out jam in the third getting two
strike outs and a ground out. The Ravens stranded seven runners in
the game’s first three innings.
The Bulldogs added four more in the sixth off reliever Alex
Szymanski, when Mark Dondero (Medfield, Mass.)
continued his hot hitting, doubling down the left-field line
bringing home T.J. Magnell (Leominster, Mass.). Dave
Muscatello (Hopkinton, Mass.) followed with a first-pitch
squeeze bunt to increase Bryant’s lead to 5-1. Ferguson
followed with a two-out rope down the left-field line to score
Dondero, and then Alexander blooped a single to break a 0-for-10
slump to score Ferguson.
Cobb was relieved by Eric Polvani (Wallingford,
CT) in the sixth after one run scored and runners were on
the corners with one out, and Polvani took care of Cobb’s
mess getting Kevin Renaud to ground into the 5-4-3 double play and
end the threat.
Polvani proved why he has been so reliable this season, as he gave
his team 3.2 stellar innings of relief, preserving the win for Cobb
(6-1) and earning his third save of the season.
After defeating the top two seeds UMass Lowell and Franklin Pierce
in their first two games of the conference tournament, Bryant
(32-20) will take on the winner of tonight’s Pace/Franklin
Pierce game Sunday at noon and 3 p.m. if necessary.
Franklin Pierce must defeat the Bulldogs twice on Sunday. Bryant
needs just one win to capture its seventh Northeast-10 Tournament
Championship and first since 2002 when they advanced to the College
World Series.
All games will be broadcast live on bryantbulldogs.com.
Linescore:
Bryant University... 102 004 000 - 7 10 4 (32-20)
Franklin Pierce..... 010 001 001 - 3 10 0 (42-9)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pitchers: Bryant University - Cobb; Polvani(6). Franklin Pierce -
Kei. Renaud; Szymanski(6); McNulty(6).
Win-Cobb(6-1) Loss-Kei. Renaud(5-2) T-2:34
2007 Northeast-10 Tournament
Wednesday May 9 - Single Elimination
Game 1: #6 SCSU 2 at #3 Bryant 4 3:30 pm
Game 2: #5 Bentley 2 at #4 Pace 5 3 pm
Friday May 11 - Double Elimination at Lowell
Game 3: #3 Bryant 5 vs. #2 Lowell 4 (14
innings)
Game 4: #4 Pace 6 vs #1 Franklin Pierce 7
Saturday May 12 at Lowell
Game 5: #2 Lowell 0 vs. #4 Pace 4 (UMass Lowell eliminated)
Game 6:#3 Bryant 7 vs. #1 Franklin Pierce 4
Game 7: #4 Pace 1 vs. #1 Franklin Pierce 5 (Pace Eliminated)
Sunday May 13 at Lowell
Game 8: Bryant vs Franklin Pierce 12
pm
Game 9: If Necessary (If Bryant loses Game 8) 3 pm