Palazzo hits first career home run as Bulldogs rout Sacred Heart, 15-0

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – Freshman James Karinchak (Walden, N.Y.) tossed his third shutout of the season and the Bryant University baseball team erupted for 15 runs on 13 hits in a 15-0 victory over Sacred Heart in game one of Saturday's doubleheader at the Ballpark at Harbor Yard.

The Bulldogs (19-19, 10-4 NEC) have won the first two games of the series and are now tied with Wagner for first place in the standings. The Pioneers (14-25-1, 7-7) suffer their sixth-straight loss.

Bryant opened the scoring on Saturday with a single run in the second inning. Junior Robby Rinn (Warwick, R.I.) and sophomore Cole Fabio (Mahwah, N.J.) doubled before junior AJ Zarozny (Shrewsbury, Mass.) delivered a sac fly to left.

The Bulldogs opened the flood gates with four runs in the third and eight more in the fourth. Junior Dan Cellucci (Sudbury, Mass.) walked to start the third and came around to score as senior Jordan Mountford (Guelph, Ont.) tripled to the base of the wall in right-center. Sophomore Brandon Bingel (Peabody, Mass.) followed with a single to center to make it 3-0. Fabio then hit a soft fly ball to center that fell out of the reach of Zack Short for a two-run double to make it 5-0.

In the fourth, the Black and Gold put together one of their biggest innings of the year, scoring eight runs on five hits. Junior Daniel Palazzo (Rocky Hill, Conn.) started the outburst with his first career home run, a solo shot over the left field wall. Mountford was then hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on a single to right from Bingel. Bryant then loaded the bases and senior John Mullen (Walpole, Mass.) hit a hard smash down the third base line that Jesus Medina dove and fielded. His throw to first, however, skipped away and allowed all three runners to score. An RBI ground out from Fabio and RBI singles from Cellucci and Mountford capped the inning and made it 13-0.

Bryant closed its scoring with two runs in the sixth. A throwing error allowed the first run to score and sophomore Joseph Paparelli (Preston, Conn.) laced a single to left-center to make it 15-0.

It was more than enough for the rookie Karinchak. He allowed just five hits, walked one and struck out six in his fourth-straight complete game. Karinchak earned his league-leading sixth win of the season and has now allowed just two runs in 28 innings against league opponents.

Mountford (2-2, 2R, 2RBI), Fabio (2-3, 3RBI) and Bingel (2-5, 2R, 2RBI) all had two hits for the Bulldogs. Palazzo, Cellucci and Albanese all scored two runs for the Black and Gold.