Bulldogs take game one, 13-3; Saturday's DH moved to 11am
** DUE TO IMPENDING BAD WEATHER SATURDAY'S DOUBLHEADER BETWEEN BRYANT AND ALBANY HAS BEEN MOVED TO 11:00 AM. THE TEAMS WILL PLAY TWO SEVEN INNING CONTESTS. **
SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Junior Carl Anderson (Sudbury, Mass.) had three hits and four RBI and eight University at Albany errors led to 10 unearned runs as the Bryant University baseball team cruised to a 13-3 victory on Friday afternoon at Conaty Park.
Amid rainy and windy conditions, the Great Danes (4-12) committed a season-high eight errors and the Bulldogs (12-8) capitalized on all of them to win their ninth game in 11 tries.
The Black and Gold picked up 11 hits on the afternoon in support of senior right-hander Craig Schlitter (Guilford, Conn.). He allowed two runs on five hits, walked two and struck out five over six innings to run his record to 4-1 on the year. The only blemish was a two-run double in the third and Schlitter capped his outing with a strikeout – the 200th of his career – to escape a bases-loaded jam in the sixth. Schlitter becomes just the fifth pitcher in program history to record 200 strikeouts and just the second at the DI level.
Anderson (3-5, 4 RBI) sparked the Bulldogs from the top of the lineup, but it was the middle of the order that did the damage in the early going. A infield pop fell for a hit two batters into the game to start the frightful afternoon for Albany and senior Tom Gavitt (North Stonington, Conn.) made an infield error hurt as he drove in two with a triple to the right field corner, the fourth three-bagger of his season. A second throwing error made it a four-run first inning. Bryant has now scored four runs in either the first or second inning in five of its last six games.
After Albany clipped the lead to two in the third, the Bulldogs responded with eight runs over their next three at-bats. A dropped pop up on the infield scored a run in the fourth, junior Jordan Mountford (Guelph, Ont.) doubled home two to highlight a four-run fifth and Anderson added a two-run double to cap a three-run sixth and make it 12-2.
Anderson's RBI single in the eighth capped Bryant's scoring for the day. The Black and Gold have now scored 10 or more runs seven times this season. Mountford (2-4, 3 RBI) and Gavitt (2-4, 3 R, 2 RBI) both finished with multiple hits, while Dan Cellucci (Sudbury, Mass.) added a pair of runs scored.
Senior Jonathan Cohen (Norwalk, Conn.) allowed a run on three hits in two innings of relief and junior Alex Lagos (Wrentham, Mass.) recorded the final three outs in the ninth. Brendan Ryan (0-1) suffered his first loss, allowing eight runs (two earned) over 4.1 innings.
The Bulldogs and Great Danes will play a doubleheader on Saturday with a first pitch scheduled for 11:00 a.m.