Owens wins No. 200 as Bulldogs blank Wagner, 7-0, Friday

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Bryant University baseball team scored five runs in the first inning and sophomore righty James Karinchak (Walden, N.Y.) struck out eight over seven scoreless innings as the Bulldogs shutout Wagner, 7-0, in the series opener Friday afternoon at Conaty Park.

With the win, Steve Owens earned his 200th win as the Bulldogs' (21-7, 10-1 NEC) skipper. He is now 200-112-1 in his five-plus seasons with the Black and Gold. Bryant scored five of its seven runs with two outs to hand the Seahawks (10-19, 5-8) their eight-straight league loss.

Bryant got all it would need in the first, taking advantage of five walks to score five runs on four hits. Junior Cole Fabio (Mahwah, N.J.) set the tone by earning a walk and battling through an 11-pitch at-bat to open the game. Classmate Brandon Bingel (Peabody, Mass.) walked as well and senior Robby Rinn (Warwick, R.I.) followed with a ground ball right back up the middle to make it 1-0.

The inning nearly stalled there as a baserunning mistake resulted in a double play and left the Bulldogs with two outs and a runner on first. Senior Buck McCarthy (Saugus, Mass.), however, laced the first pitch of his at-bat into the right-center field gap for a run-scoring triple. Freshman Nick Angelini (Bedford, N.H.) then fell behind 0-2 before knocking a single up the middle to score McCarthy. Sophomore Malik Daley (Northborough, Mass.) capped the inning as he came to the plate with the bases loaded and ripped a single through the left side to score two.

Bryant went on to add single runs in the fifth and seventh to put the game away. Senior Zach Wood (Griswold, Conn.) walked, advanced to third on a single and then scored on a two-out single from Fabio in the fifth. Fabio added his second RBI of the game in the seventh with a sac fly to right to score senior Dan Cellucci (Sudbury, Mass.) and make it 7-0.

It was more than enough for Karinchak as the sophomore improved to 7-1 on the year and lowered his league-leading ERA to 1.40. He struck out eight, walked two and scattered five hits in seven innings. Karinchak struck out seven over the first four innings and induced 11 fly ball outs during his outing. He stranded runners on the corners in the fourth, worked around a two-out double in the fifth and got a fly ball to center to leave a runner at third in the seventh. Redshirt-junior Oliver Powers (Newtown, Conn.) pitched the final two innings, allowing two hits.

Rinn tied his career high with four hits, while Fabio drove in two and reached base safely four times with three walks. Wood walked and scored twice and Angelini went 2-for-3 with a stolen base for the Bulldogs.

Wagner right-hander Mike Adams allowed six runs on seven hits and walked 10 batters in 4 2/3 innings to fall to 1-5 on the year. Adams had walked just 15 batters all season entering the game. Paul Mammino tossed the final 3 1/3 innings, allowing one run on four hits. Kyle Cala and Anthony Harrold each finished with two hits for the Seahawks.

The Bulldogs and Seahawks continue their series on Saturday with a doubleheader scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m.