Bulldogs host Mount St. Mary's in NEC series this weekend

GAME NOTES

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Bryant University baseball team continues its home stretch this weekend as it welcomes Mount St. Mary's to Conaty Park for a four-game series.

The Bulldogs (10-16, 2-2 NEC) and the Mountaineers (6-20, 4-4) come into the weekend tied for third place in the conference standings. Sacred Heart currently leads the pack with a 3-1 record. Bryant has dominated the all-time series with Mount, holding a 18-2 advantage thanks to 18-straight wins heading into this weekend.

Bryant comes into the series looking to rebound from a midweek loss to Connecticut. The Bulldogs continued to get big offensive contributions from sophomore Cole Fabio (Mahwah, N.J.) as he went 2-for-4 with a run scored. He is now hitting .410 over his last 10 games and a team-leading .348 on the year. Junior Buck McCarthy (Saugus, Mass.) also had a good day against the Huskies as he went 3-for-3 with an RBI. McCarthy now has three-straight multi-hit games and has seven hits in his last 11 at-bats.

Junior Kyle Wilcox (Sandy Hook, Conn.) takes the ball in game one Friday in search of his fourth-straight victory. He allowed three runs in the first inning of his start last weekend but allowed just two hits over his next seven innings to earn the win. He has a 2.41 ERA in 41 innings but has struck out just 23 batters. Wilcox has been effective thanks to 34 ground ball outs over his last three starts.

Senior Trevor Lacosse (Watervliet, N.Y.) and freshman James Karinchak (Walden, N.Y.) will once again pitch on Saturday. Lacosse allowed two runs on seven hits in a loss to CCSU but did strikeout six and has 33 punch outs in 34 innings. Karinchak was brilliant in the league start of his career, tossing a three-hit shutout to earn NEC Co-Pitcher and Rookie of the Week honors.

Sophomore Jack Patterson (Suffield, Conn.) will get the ball on Sunday for the second-straight weekend. Patterson tossed 2.1 innings last weekend, allowing four runs (three earned) on four hits. It was his first outing in nearly a month.

The Mount comes into the weekend having split its first two conference series. The Mountaineers have split with Central Connecticut and LIU Brooklyn. They feature two of the top hitters in the league in Andrew Clow and Kory Britton. Clow leads the league with a .392 average and also has nine doubles, while Britton is hitting .363 with eight doubles and a team-leading 16 RBI.

Mount St. Mary's has posted a team ERA of 5.73 and will send Thomas Williams to the mound in game one Friday. Williams is 0-4 with a 4.89 ERA and has struck out 25 in 35 innings. Chris Campbell and Chad Diehl are the other two scheduled starters. Campbell is 2-1 with a 1.88 ERA in 24 innings and is coming off a start in which he allowed just one run one hit over six innings against LIU. Diehl is 2-3 with a 2.83 ERA and earned NEC Co-Pitcher of the Week honors after tossing seven scoreless innings against the Blackbirds.

Bryant and Mount St. Mary's open the series on Friday at 3:00 p.m. They will play two seven inning games starting at 1:00 p.m. and Saturday and wrap up the series with a single game at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday.