Northeast-10 Tournament: Baseball Pulls Off Incredible 5-4 14-Inning Victory over UMass-Lowell; Will Play Franklin Pierce Saturday 3 p.m.
BRYANT BASEBALL
May 11, 2007
Northeast-10 Tournament: Baseball Pulls Off Incredible
5-4 14-Inning Victory over UMass-Lowell
LOWELL, MASS. – The Bryant baseball team erased a
3-0 deficit, and pulled out a 5-4 incredible 14-inning victory over
UMass-Lowell Friday afternoon.
With the victory, the Bulldogs seeded third in the Northeast-10
Tournament, will play #1 Franklin Pierce on Saturday at 3 p.m in
Lowell. The Ravens defeated #4 Pace 7-6 late Friday night to remain
in the winner's bracket.
This game featured numerous outstanding performances, notably two
doubles and four RBIs from Mark Dondero (Medfield,
Mass.) and six shutout innings of relief from closer
Adam Vuolo (Walpole, Mass.) who earned his first
win of the season.
The Bulldogs trailed 3-0 after one inning as starter Dan
Lozeau (Pelham, NH) surrendered three early hits and was
hurt by an error.
Bryant clawed back into it in the seventh as Jeff Vigurs
(South Windsor, CT) singled and T.J. Magnell
(Leominster, Mass.) worked out a walk after a ten-pitch
at-bat. Following a sacrifice bunt by Dylan Stone
(Portsmouth, RI), Dondero came through with a two-run
double to cut the lead to one.
The Riverhawks extended their lead to 4-2 in the eighth off Lozeau
and Eric Polvani (Wallingford, CT) but missed a
chance to make it 5-2 as Magnell threw out a runner at the plate to
end the inning.
Off closer Pat Donovan, Bryant rallied for two runners in duplicate
fashion of the seventh. Vigurs singled and Magnell walked, and
Stone sacrificed the runners into scoring position. Dondero then
took the first pitch he saw and ripped a double into the
left-center field alley to tie the game.
Deep into extra innings, the teams went, exchanging scoring chance
after scoring chance.
The Bulldogs left the bases full in the tenth as Stone grounded to
first off reliever Ronny Nelson. Vuolo got through the 10th and
11th but got into trouble in the 12th after Luke Wallace drilled a
two-out triple to left-center. But Vuolo got Anthony Santos to fly
out to Taylor Ferguson (Charlton, Mass.) to get
out of his third inning.
The game continued to the 14th as Nick Campbell (Raynham,
Mass.) singled and stole second after there were two outs.
With two-strikes and two-outs on him, Vigurs laced a single up the
middle and Campbell narrowly beat the throw home, giving Bryant
their first lead.
Working in his sixth inning, Vuolo allowed one base-runner in the
14th, but with one out and one on, Mike Heins (Northford,
CT), who entered the game in left after Magnell was
pinch-run for, made a lunging catch to seal the victory. Vuolo got
Wallace to ground out to end the game and give his team the big
victory.
Vigurs finished with four hits, two runs scored and the
game-winning RBI, while catching all 14-innings. Dondero had four
RBIs and three hits. Vuolo (1-3) pitched a season-high six innings,
allowing three hits, while throwing 77 pitches.
After allowing three early runs, Lozeau grinded for the rest of the
contest, pitching 7.1 innings and allowing four runs (three
earned).
Bryant (31-20) needs one win to advance to Sunday’s
championship game. They will play at 3 p.m. Saturday and at 7 p.m.
Saturday if they lose at 3.
All games will be broadcast live on bryantbulldogs.com.
Linescore:
Bryant University... 000 000 202 000 01 - 5 13 1
(31-20)
UMass Lowell........ 300 000 010 000 00 - 4 15 1 (33-17)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pitchers: Bryant University - Lozeau; Polvani(8); Vuolo(9). UMass
Lowell - Williams, R.;
Donovan, P.(9); Nelson, R.(10).
Win-Vuolo(1-3) Loss-Nelson, R.(1-1) T-2:32
2007 Northeast-10 Tournament
Wednesday May 9 - Single Elimination
Game 1: #6 SCSU 2 at #3 Bryant 4 3:30 pm
Game 2: #5 Bentley 2 at #4 Pace 5 3 pm
Friday May 11 - Double Elimination at Lowell
Game 3: #3 Bryant 5 vs. #2 Lowell 4 (14
innings)
Game 4: #4 Pace 6 vs #1 Franklin
Pierce 7 7 pm
Saturday May 12 at Lowell
Game 5: #2 Lowell vs. #4 Pace 11 am (Loser eliminated)
Game 6:#3 Bryant vs. #1
Franklin Pierce 3 pm
Game 7: Game 5 Winner vs. Game 6 Loser 7 pm (Loser eliminated)
Sunday May 13 at Lowell
Game 8: Game 6 Winner vs Game 7 Winner 12 pm
Game 9: If Necessary 3 pm