Baseball completes sweep, 8-1, on Sunday

SCHLITTER, OFFENSE LEAD BULLDOG SWEEP OF MOUNT ST. MARY'S

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Junior Craig Schlitter (Guilford, Conn.) struck out five over six strong innings and four players posted multiple hits as the Bryant University baseball team completed a weekend sweep of Mount St. Mary's with an 8-1 victory on Sunday afternoon at Conaty Park.

The Bulldogs (9-9-1, 4-0 NEC) have now won 14-straight games against the Mountaineers (4-14, 0-4) dating back to 2010. Bryant has now started conference play 4-0 in back-to-back seasons.

Following the lead of his three teammates, Schlitter put forth another dominant outing for the Black and Gold on Sunday. He scattered four hits and allowed just one run to earn his second victory of the season. Schlitter worked around a two-out double in the first and then got some help from senior second baseman Adam Claire (Litchfield, Conn.) in the third. With a runner on second and two outs, Mark Quaranta hit a hard ground ball to the right side that was destined for an RBI single but Claire made a diving stop and threw Quaranta out at first to end the inning. Schlitter then struck out a pair in the fourth and allowed his only run in the fifth.

Offensively, the Bulldogs finally broke out, registering 13 hits on the afternoon. The barrage started in the first inning as the first three hitters all singled. Sophomore Jordan Mountford (Guelph, Ont.) singled to start the game, freshman AJ Zarozny (Shrewsbury, Mass.) singled to left-center and senior Kevin Brown (Northborough, Mass.) made it 1-0 with an RBI single to right field. Sophomore John Mullen added his team-leading 15^th RBI of the season with a sac fly to center to score Zarozny and make it 2-0.

The Mount made it a game in the fifth inning, cutting the Bryant lead in half. Nick Walker doubled down the right field line with one out, advanced to third on a balk and scored on an infield ground out from Zach Smith.

Quieted for the next four innings, the Bulldogs put the game away with a six-run sixth inning. Bryant sent 12 batters to the plate, scoring six runs on five hits. Sophomore Carl Anderson (Sudbury, Mass.) started the inning with a single up the middle, senior Dan Muscatello (Hopkinton, Mass.) walked Claire reached on an infield error to load the bases with no outs. The Bulldogs then called on sophomore Daniel St. George (Shelton, Conn.) and he drilled a pinch-hit, two-run double to left-center to make it 4-1. Mountford followed with a two-run single up the middle to make it 6-1. Bryant would tack on two more runs with a bases-loaded walk to junior Tom Gavitt (North Stonington, Conn.) and an infield single from Anderson.

Bryant's bullpen did the rest as redshirt junior Vaughn Hayward (Glendale, R.I.) and freshman Kyle Wilcox (Sandy Hook, Conn.) combined to shutout the Mountaineers over the final three innings. Hayward struck out three and allowed two hits in two innings of work, and Wilcox struck out a batter in a scoreless ninth.

Brown led the offense with three hits and Mountford, Zarozny and Anderson all chipped in with two hits. Zarozny also scored a pair of runs.

The Bulldogs will now head on the road for six-straight games starting on Wednesday, March 27 when they travel to Chestnut Hill, Mass., to face Boston College. First pitch is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.