Bulldogs use two big innings to blow past Brown, 15-3, Tuesday

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Bryant University baseball team used a six-run second and a nine-run fourth to cruise past intra-state rival Brown, 15-3, in a game shortened to seven innings due to daylight on Tuesday afternoon at Murray Stadium.

The Bulldogs (29-7) have now won nine-straight games and improve to 7-4 all-time against the Bears (12-23). Bryant has scored 10+ runs in six of their last 12 games and is now 15-2 in the month of April.

All but one of Bryant's starters had a hit and all nine starters scored a run in Tuesday's game. Junior Matt Albanese (East Haddam, Conn.), classmate Cole Fabio (Mahwah, N.J.) and sophomore Mickey Gasper (Merrimack, N.H.) all finished with two hits. Senior Zach Wood (Griswold, Conn.) hit his fourth home run of the year and finished with three RBI, while freshman Nick Angelini (Bedford, N.H.) set a career-high with three runs driven in. Albanese added two RBI to up his league-leading total to 44 and Fabio scored three times in the game.

After a scoreless first, the Bulldogs awoke in the second, scoring six runs on five hits. The first two batters of the inning were retired but Gasper kept the inning alive with an infield single to deep short. Junior Brandon Bingel (Peabody, Mass.) then walked and Wood followed with a towering three-run home run to left field to make it 3-0. Cellucci restarted the inning with a double and a two-out error extended the inning even further for Bryant. Angelini plated two more with a double and Albanese capped the inning with an RBI single.

The Bulldogs put the game out of reach with a nine-run fourth inning. A single, hit batter and a walk loaded the bases with no outs before three-straight singles from Albanese, McCarthy and Gasper plated the first three runs of the inning. A sac fly from Bingel, two bases-loaded walks and RBI hits Fabio and Rinn capped Bryant's second nine-run inning of the season.

Redshirt-junior Garrison Banas (Westfield, Mass.) benefited for the offensive barrage and tossed four scoreless innings to earn his second win of the year. He allowed five hits, walked three and struck out two on the afternoon. Graduate student Garrett Hayward (Glendale, R.I.) and sophomore Matt Knych (Manville, R.I.), each tossed a scoreless inning of relief. 

Robbie Stephens took the loss for Brown, allowing six runs (three earned) on five hits in two innings. He retired the first five batters of the game before Bryant erupted in the second. Five different Bears had hits in the game.

The Bulldogs continue their busy week with a trip to Boston College on Wednesday to face the Eagles. It will be a matchup between New England's top two teams and the first pitch is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.