Bulldogs open 2014 with Terrapins
SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Bryant University baseball team officially begins its 2014 spring season on Friday, Feb. 21 when it opens a four-game weekend series with the University of Maryland. First pitch is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. on Friday.
This weekend will be the first-ever meeting between the Bulldogs (0-0) and the Terrapins (1-2). Bryant has faced a member of the ACC in each of the last five years, going 6-9 in that span. The Bulldogs are 2-6 against Boston College and 4-3 against Virginia Tech.
The Bulldogs enter the 2014 season with seven returning starters on offense, two returning starting pitchers and a key veteran reliever. Bryant hit .288 as a team last spring and all signs point to the Bulldogs being an even better offensive unit this spring. Junior Jordan Mountford (Guelph, Ont.) returns as the starting right fielder and leadoff hitter after hitting .317 with 17 doubles, three triples, three home runs and 50 runs scored. An offensive catalyst, Mountford propelled the Black and Gold to a 35-3 record when he batted leadoff. Classmate Carl Anderson (Sudbury, Mass.) and sophomore AJ Zarozny (Shrewsbury, Mass.) are the two other players that hit over .300 and are back this season. Anderson led the team in RBI with 49 and also stole 20 bases, and Zarozny was named the NEC Rookie of the Year and a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American after hitting .310 with 14 doubles, 28 RBI and 43 runs scored. The Bulldogs also return three others – John Mullen (Walpole, Mass.), Daniel St. George (Shelton, Conn.) and Robby Rinn (Warwick, R.I.) – that drove in 25 or more runs last spring.
On the mound, the Bulldogs will turn to senior Craig Schlitter (Guilford, Conn.) on Friday, with junior Kevin McAvoy (Syracuse, N.Y.), senior Vaughn Hayward (Glendale, R.I.) and sophomore Kyle Wilcox (Sandy Hook, Conn.) set to start the final three games. Schlitter has won 18 games in his three-year career and is coming off a 10-win season last spring. A command pitcher, Schlitter has walked just 57 batters in 205 career innings. McAvoy has gone 12-4 in two seasons as a starter and is coming off a season in which he won seven games. Primarily relievers last season, Hayward and Wilcox both move into the starting rotation this spring. The right-handers give the Black and Gold two power pitchers at the back-end of the rotation. Hayward posted a 1.54 ERA in 21 appearances and Wilcox enters the season ranked No. 48 in College Baseball Daily's list of the top 100 players in college baseball.
While the Bulldogs will be playing their first games of the season, the Terrapins enter the weekend having already played three games. Maryland faced No. 21 Florida last weekend, going 1-2 against the Gators. The Terps lost 4-0 on Friday, defeated the Gators, 9-7, on Saturday and dropped the series finale, 8-5, on Sunday. Maryland has won 30 games in back-to-back seasons for the first time in program history and is picked to finish fourth in the ACC's Atlantic Division.
Maryland was led by Anthony Papio last weekend, as he went 5-for-8 with a double, home run and three runs scored. Kevin Martir drove in four runs and Brandon Lowe drove in three and scored four times in the series with the Gators. On the mound, Jake Stinnett, Mike Shawaryn, Jake Drossner and Jared Price are the projected starters against the Bulldogs. Stinnett allowed three runs and struck out seven over five innings last Friday and Shawaryn earned the victory on Saturday with 5.2 innings of three-hit ball. Drossner recorded two outs in relief, while Price walked five and allowed five runs in 1.2 innings on Sunday.
Bryant and Maryland will play a single game on Friday, two nine-inning games on Saturday and wrap up the series with a single game on Sunday.