Bryant baseball blanks Maryland, 2-0, on Saturday afternoon

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The Bryant University baseball trio of junior Brandon Bingel (Peabody, Mass.), freshman Steve Theetge (Cicero, N.Y.) and sophomore Logan Lessard (Cromwell, Conn.) combined to shutout the University of Maryland, 2-0, on Saturday afternoon at Bob "Turtle" Smith Stadium.

With the win, the Bulldogs improve to 9-3 on the year and earn their first-ever victory over the Terrapins (6-8). Bryant, who has yet to lose back-to-back games yet this season, will go for the series victory on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. It is the first time Maryland, the Big Ten favorite, has been shutout at home since April 19, 2015. The Black and Gold are now 3-6 all-time against the Big Ten.

Bingel put together one of the best outings of his career on Saturday, scattering three hits over six scoreless innings to improve to 2-1 on the year. He walked three and struck three on the afternoon. Bingel allowed just two baserunners over the first three innings and induced an inning-ending 6-4-3- double play in the fourth.

He ran into trouble in the fifth as Maryland put the first two runners on thanks to a walk and a single. Bingel retired the next two batters with fly outs but a walk loaded the bases. A ground ball to first ended the threat and Bingel retired the Terps in order in the sixth to end his outing. He threw 54 of his 91 pitches for strikes.  

Bingel then turned it over to the bullpen and Theetge and Lessard combined to get the final nine outs. Theetge struck out two in a scoreless seventh before Lessard got the final six outs to earn his fourth save of the year. In the eighth, Maryland hit back-to-back singles with one out but Lessard got a weak ground out and a soft pop out to short to end the inning. In the ninth, Anthony Papio walked to open the inning but Lessard struck out the next two batters looking before ending the game with a weak ground ball to third.

Bryant scratched a run across in the third inning on Saturday. Senior Dan Cellucci (Sudbury, Mass.) doubled over the left fielders head to open the inning and then advanced to third on a single to center from junior Cole Fabio (Mahwah, N.J.). Junior Matt Albanese (East Haddam, Conn.) then hit a hard ground ball to short that looked to be an inning-ending double play but the ball was bobbled and Cellucci was able to score from third. Bryant missed out on a chance for more as Maryland starter Taylor Bloom got the Bulldogs' 3-4 hitters to pop out and ground out.

The Bulldogs added an insurance run in the top of the ninth thanks to back-to-back doubles from Albanese and senior Robby Rinn (Warwick, R.I.). Albanese legged out a bloop double down the right field line and Rinn followed with a double to right to make it 2-0.

Cellucci posted his second-straight multi-hit game and Rinn doubled twice to lead the Bryant offense. With his double in the ninth, Albanese now has a two-bagger in three-straight games.  

Taylor Bloom pitched a complete game in defeat for the Terps. He allowed two runs on six hits, didn't walk a batter and struck out five. He retired 10-straight batters before Albanese and Rinn doubled to open the ninth. Andrew Bechtold had two hits and made 10 plays at third base for the Terps.

First pitch for Sunday's series finale is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.