No. 20 Bryant completes Mother's Day sweep behind career days from Cellucci and Gasper

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Senior Dan Cellucci (Sudbury, Mass.) drove in a career-high six runs and sophomore Mickey Gasper (Merrimack, N.H.) had a career-high four hits and four runs scored as the No. 20 Bryant University baseball team cruised to a 15-5 victory over LIU Brooklyn in game two of a doubleheader on Sunday afternoon at LIU Field.

The Bulldogs (36-9, 19-3 NEC) pounded out 17 hits in the game and finished the afternoon with 36 runs in two games. The Blackbirds fall to 14-31 overall and 8-14 in the NEC.

Cellucci finished a home run shy of the cycle, going 3-for-4 with a double, triple and a career-high six runs driven in. Gasper finished 4-for-4 with a walk, two RBI and four runs scored.

Senior Robby Rinn (Warwick, R.I.) and junior Matt Albanese (East Haddam, Conn.) each reached RBI milestones in the ballgame as Rinn broke the DI program record and Albanese became the first player since 2009 to post 50+ RBI in a season. Rinn finished 2-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored and now has 153 career RBI. Albanese finished 4-for-6 with two RBI and three runs scored, and now has 50 RBI on the year. He also has 54 runs scored, becoming the first player in DI program history to have 50+ RBI and 50+ runs scored in the same season.  

The Bulldogs also received multi-hit games from seniors Buck McCarthy (Saugus, Mass.) and Zach Wood (Griswold, Conn.). McCarthy finished 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored and Wood went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

Senior James Davitt (Wallingford, Conn.) worked the first six-plus innings to earn his fifth win of the year. He allowed three runs (two earned) on seven hits, walked four and struck out five. Redshirt-junior Garrison Banas (Hadley, Mass.) worked two scoreless innings, striking out four, including the side in the eighth. Sophomore Logan Lessard (Cromwell, Conn.) pitched the ninth.

LIU got on the board first with a run in the first but the Black and Gold responded with the first of two five-run innings in the second. Albanese walked and Gasper singled to open the inning and Wood brought home the first run with a bloop single to right center. Cellucci followed with a two-run double inside the third-base bag to give Bryant its first lead. Junior Brandon Bingel (Peabody, Mass.) drew a bases-loaded walk and Rinn broke the RBI record with a sac fly to make it 5-1.

Cellucci made it 6-1 with his first-career triple in the third before Bryant put the game away with a five-run fourth. Bingel doubled with one out to start a string of five-straight hits. Rinn followed with an RBI double to left, Albanese ripped an RBI single to center, Gasper drove an RBI single to right and McCarthy doubled to left center. After a strikeout, Cellucci capped the inning with a two-out, two-run single to right field to make it 11-1.

Bryant finished its scoring with four runs in the fifth. A walk and a single put two runners on before three-consecutive singles brought home three runs. Albanese, Gasper and McCarthy all picked up RBIs and Cellucci capped the inning, once again, with a sac fly to right.

Anthony Rupp took the loss for LIU, allowing 11 runs on 11 hits in four innings. Nate Struss hit his first-career home run in the ninth to cap the Blackbirds' scoring.

The Bulldogs will have the week off to focus on finals before hosting Central Connecticut in a four-game NEC series starting next Friday, May 13.