VIRGINIA TECH RALLIES FOR 5-4 WIN OVER BULLDOGS; ENGLISH FOUR HITS

March 9, 2010 

BRYANT BASEBALL LOSES A HEARTBREAKER 5-4 TO VIRGINIA TECH
 

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Jordan English had four hits Tuesday against Virginia Tech. The Bulldogs and Hokies will play against Wednesday at 5:30 pm.  www.dspics.com

BLACKSBURG, Va. – The Bryant University baseball team let a 4-1 lead slip away late as host Virginia Tech rallied with two runs in the seventh and two more in the eighth to knock off the Bulldogs 5-4 Tuesday.  The Bulldogs (1-7) loaded the bases in the top of the ninth with one out but had the tying run thrown out at the plate.

Mustering only one hit through the first three innings, the Bulldogs finally broke through against starter Marc Zecchino in the fourth.  Kevin Brown (Northborough, Mass.), who has been red-hot in his first year in a Bulldog uniform, hitting safely in the first seven games, got the rally started with a double to lead off the inning.

Jordan English (Windsor Locks, Conn.) would follow with a single, moving Brown up to second.  Jamie Skagerlind (Holden, Mass.) would reach safely on a fielder’s choice grounder to first, though Brown would score on a throwing error on the play to put the Bulldogs 1-0.  Good base running by English moved him into scoring position at third.  English had a huge day at the plate for the Bulldogs as the junior hit safely in his first four at-bats in the game.

English would score one batter later to make it 2-0 on a sacrifice fly by David Soltis (Plainville, Conn.). After Skagerlind stole second safely, the Bulldog sophomore would scored on a single by Zakary Cianciolo (Prospect, Conn.) to make it 3-0.

Virginia Tech (9-2) would threaten in the fifth.  After the first two batters reached safely, Brent Almeida (Fairhaven, Mass.), making his first start of the season on the mound for the Bulldogs, got Buddy Sosnoskie to fly out.  Steve Domecus worked a full-count walk to load the bases with two outs, but Almeida and the Bulldogs escaped unharmed as Anthony Sosnoskie flied out to Nick Campbell (Raynham, Mass.) in center to end the inning.

The Hokies would finally get on the board in the sixth.  After giving up a double to Tim Smalling and a single to Ronnie Sheban to put two runners on again with no-outs, Nick Laude came on in relief of Almeida.  Michael Seaborn would plate Smalling with a sacrifice fly to center but the Bulldogs would get out of the inning still in front 3-1.

An RBI single by Campbell to score Conor Carignan (Norwich, Conn.) in the seventh made it 4-1 in favor of the Bulldogs, but Virginia Tech would get the run back in the bottom of the inning.

With bases with one out, Shaban singled off Matt Griswold (Berlin, Conn.)  who came on in relief of Nick Laude (Wells, Maine) to cut the Bryant lead in half, 4-2.  After Seaborn struck out, M. Kaminski worked a bases loaded walk against Griswold on a full-count, scoring Anthony Sosnoskie to make it 4-3.

Virginia Tech would take its first lead of the game in the bottom of the eight thanks to a two run home run by Domecus to make it 5-4.

The Bulldogs nearly tied it in their last at-bat in the top of the ninth, loading the bases with one out in the inning.  However, the Bulldogs ran out of luck as Carignan was thrown out at home trying to score the game-tying run on a grounder to third by Brown.  Bryant’s last chance ended when English, who was 4-for-4 in the game, struck out to end the game.

The teams will wrap up the two-game series Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.