Baseball visits Liberty in mid-week tilt

BULLDOGS FACE TOUGH FLAMES SQUAD ON TUESDAY

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LYNCHBURG, Va. – Facing one of its toughest tests of the season, the Bryant University baseball team visits Liberty University for a single game on Tuesday, March 13 at the XX Stadium.

The Bulldogs (4-8) are coming off a 1-2 weekend against Radford University and will look to hand the Flames (16-2) their second-straight loss. It will be Bryant's first mid-week game of the season.

Liberty had its nine-game winning streak snapped on Sunday in a 3-1 loss to St. John's in the final game of a four-game weekend series. Even with Sunday's loss the Flames are off to their best start in program history. The Flames' marquee win of the season came over 2011 World Series team Virginia, an 8-0 shutout back on Feb. 28. The shutout of the Cavaliers sparked a three-game stretch in which the Flames did not allow a single run. On the season, they have shutout six opponents already.

Liberty has received strong hitting (.309 team average) and stellar pitching (2.37 team ERA) in its record-setting start. The Flames feature five players hitting .333 or higher with Bryan Aanderud leading the way with a .394 average and 19 RBI. Michael Robertson, Andy Smith, Ian Parmley and Zack Haley are also hitting over .333 with Parmley leading the team with 24 runs and eight stolen bases.

Freshman left-hander Jared Lyons will make his second career start against the Bulldogs on Tuesday. Lyons has made a team-high seven appearances this season and is 0-1 with a 3.38 ERA over 10.2 innings. He's allowed five runs on 10 hits and has struck out five.

Bryant will counter with senior right-hander Brian O'Neil (North Reading, Mass.). He will be making his first start of the season and just his second appearance after throwing 0.2 scoreless innings of relief against George Mason. Last year, O'Neil went 4-3 with a 3.98 ERA over 61.0 innings. He appeared in 14 games and made 11 starts for the Black and Gold, pitching seven innings in three of his four wins.

O'Neil will be trying to halt a two-game skid for the Black and Gold. After defeating Radford and ace Eddie Butler on Friday, Bryant was unable to put together a complete game the remainder of the weekend. The held a 4-2 lead on Saturday after three and a half innings before the Highlanders scored six runs in the fourth, and they were in a scoreless battle through four and a half innings on Sunday before Radford scored six runs over its next two at-bats.

One of the bright spots on the weekend was junior Kevin Brown (Northborough, Mass.). He went 6-for-14 with a double, triple, two home runs, four RBI and four runs scored over the three games. Brown tripled and homered in Bryant's victory on Friday and then had three hits, including his second home run of the series on Saturday. Freshman John Mullen (Walpole, Mass.) also broke out on Saturday, hitting his first career home run and driving in four runs.

Following Tuesday's game, the Bulldogs will head to Emmitsburg, Md., to start Northeast Conference play with a four-game weekend series against Mount St. Mary's. The Bulldogs and Mountaineers kick the series off on Friday, March 16 with a 3:00 p.m. first pitch.