Posted: Mar 06, 2010

BASEBALL FALLS TO UNC ASHEVILLE 3-2 IN FIRST OF TWO SATURDAY

March 6, 2010

BRYANT BASEBALL FALLS TO UNC ASHEVILLE 3-2 IN FIRST OF TWO SATURDAY; BULLDOGS PLAY DAVIDSON LATER AT 5 PM

DAVIDSON, N.C. - The Bryant University baseball team dropped a tough 3-2 decision to UNC-Asheville in the first of two games Saturday afternoon at Davidson University. The Bulldogs got another strong outing from ace Eric Polvani (Wallingford Conn.) and out-hit the UNC-Asheville Bulldogs 9-2, but came up just short to drop to 0-4 on the year.

Polvani pitched very well, throwing eight strong innings allowing just two Asheville hits while striking out four. The UNC Bulldogs struck first, scoring a run in the as Austin Graham led off the inning with a walk and would later move to third on a groundout to Jamie Skagerlind (Holden, Mass.) at first. Graham would come home on wild pitch by Polvani, but the Bulldog senior righty would strike out Justin Schumer to end the inning.

UNCA threatened again in the fifth with a runner at third with two outs but Polvani would bear down and strike out Danny Baatz to end the inning.

Bryant would get the run back in the bottom of the sixth as Nick Campbell (Raynham, Mass.) drilled a two-out single to left. Jeff Vigurs (South Windsor, Conn.) would follow with a single to right and the speedy Campbell would come around to score on a defensive error by UNCA's second baseman on the play.

UNCA would make it 3-1 in the seventh as junior Mike Vaughn hit a two-run home run to left, but that would be the only scoring of the inning as the Bryant defense turned an inning-ending double play to get out of the inning.

Bryant would pull within run in the eighth as Dylan Stone (Portsmouth, R.I.) laced a one-out double down the left field line. Campbell would follow with a double to left to score Stone easily. Vigurs would reach on an infield error but that would be all the scoring for the Bulldogs as Campbell was cut down trying to steal third.

Campbell had a good day at the plate, going 3-for-4 with an RBI while English had two hits in the game. Bryant out-hit the Bulldogs 9-2 but couldn't take advantage of two UNCA errors.

Bryant will face Davidson later on this afternoon at 5 pm and close out the weekend with a game against Davidson Sunday at 1 p.m.