Hayward, pair of homers lead Bryant to 3-0 win

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Backed by home runs from senior Tom Gavitt (North Stonington, Conn.) and junior John Mullen (Walpole, Mass.), senior Vaughn Hayward (Glendale, R.I.) tossed seven scoreless innings to lead the Bryant University baseball team to a 3-0 victory over Northeastern on Wednesday afternoon at Friedman Diamond.

The Bulldogs (7-7) have now won four-straight over the Huskies (7-9) and earned their first shutout in nine meetings. Bryant has now won four of its last five games.

A week after earning his first win as a Bulldog with six scoreless innings at North Carolina A&T, Hayward (2-1) was even better against Northeastern. The veteran right-hander allowed a leadoff walk but followed by retiring the next eight batters in a row. Hayward allowed back-to-back singles to start the fourth but bounced back to retire the next three Huskies to end the threat. Two more singles with two outs mounted an NU rally in the seventh but Hayward recorded his third and final punch out of the afternoon to end the inning. Hayward allowed just four hits, walked two and struck out three in running his scoreless inning streak to 17.

Bryant gave Hayward all the support he would need with a single run in the third and two runs in the fifth. In the third, junior Carl Anderson (Sudbury, Mass.) reached on a two-out error, moved to third on a Mullen single and scored as classmate Jordan Mountford (Guelph, Ont.) dropped a single into left field.

Gavitt and Mullen then powered the Bulldogs to a three-run lead in the fifth. Leading off the inning, Gavitt launched a home run deep over the left field fence to make it 2-0. It was his first home run of the season. Three batters later, Mullen took a 1-2 pitch the other way and over the right field wall for an opposite field home run.

Both pitching staffs settled down after that. NU starter James Mulry worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth to close his evening and freshman reliever Aaron Civale retired nine of the 10 batters he faced to close the door. For the Bulldogs, sophomore Michael Marshall (Maynard, Mass.) notched a scoreless eighth and junior closer Trevor Lacosse (Watervliet, N.Y.) earned his third save with a scoreless ninth.

Mullen and Gavitt both picked up two hits to lead the offense.

The Bulldogs will now travel to Bel Air, Md., to take on Delaware in a three-game series at Harford Community College this weekend. Game one is schedule for Friday, March 21 with a 3:00 p.m. first pitch.