Bulldogs split DH at UMass Lowell behind stellar Game 2 performance from Paul

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Bryant University softball team picked up an afternoon doubleheader split vs. UMass Lowell, dropping Game 1, 10-9, before coming back to take Game 2, 5-1, Tuesday in Lowell, Mass.

Game 1

Despite scoring four runs in the top of the seventh inning, the Bulldogs (9-20) were unable to overcome a six-run fifth inning by the River Hawks (10-14), dropping Game 1, 10-9.

The Black and Gold got things going in the top of the first after Liana Ogata (Tustin, Calif.) and Madeline Velasquez (Los Angeles, Calif.) earned their way on base to set up Hayley Bottino (Canyon Country, Calif.) for the two-run double to center field. After UMass got one back in the bottom half of the inning, the Bulldogs took back a two-run lead thanks to an Ogata RBI double to right in the second.

Taking a 3-2 lead into the fourth inning, a pair of Bryant freshman upped the visitors edge to three runs when catcher Robyn Ukegawa (Carlsbad, Calif.) and first baseman Maritza Martinez (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.) sent back-to-back jacks over the outfield fence.

Bryant's three-run lead, however, would be short lived as the River Hawks matched the two-run output in the bottom of the fourth before exploding for six runs in the fifth.

Facing a 10-5 deficit, the Bulldogs refused to go down without a fight as a pair of RBI singles from Haylee Haas (Moorpark, Calif.) and Elle Madsen (Wheat Ridge, Colo.) and back-to-back fielder's choice ground balls pushed four runs across in the top of the seventh inning. But it was too little, too late as UMass held on for the 10-9 Game 1 victory.

Bottino allowed six runs (five earned) on 10 hits in her eighth start of the season, while freshman Logan Paul (Shaker Heights, Ohio) allowed four runs on three hits and three walks in two innings of relief.

Game 2

In the second leg of the double header, it was all Paul, who put together the best performance of her young Bulldog career, allowing just a single hit in 5.2 innings of work to lift Bryant to the 5-1 victory and the doubleheader split.

Paul was absolutely tremendous in just the fifth start of her career, allowing just a single hit, a solo homerun by Ariana Darcy in the fifth inning, to improve to 2-2 on the season. Madsen threw 1.1 innings in relief, allowing just a single walk, to ensure the win for the Black and Gold.

After three scoreless innings, Bryant pushed across its first run of the game when a Taylor Burger (Killingworth, Conn.) sacrifice fly scored Madsen. The River Hawks answered in the bottom of the fifth with the Darcy homer before Haas's first homerun of the year put the visitors back in front, 2-1.

The Bulldogs, however, did the majority of their damage in the top of the seventh, when Martienz's second bomb of the afternoon upped the Bryant lead to two runs, before RBI singles from Velasquez and Mollie Anderson (East Greenwich, R.I.) secured the 5-1 win.

The Black and Gold return to action on Friday when they visit Wagner for their second crack at NEC play. The doubleheader in Staten Island, N.Y., is set to start at 1 p.m.