March 9, 2010
BRYANT BASEBALL LOSES A HEARTBREAKER 5-4 TO VIRGINIA
TECH
boxscore
BLACKSBURG, Va. – The Bryant University baseball team let
a 4-1 lead slip away late as host Virginia Tech rallied with two
runs in the seventh and two more in the eighth to knock off the
Bulldogs 5-4 Tuesday. The Bulldogs (1-7) loaded the bases in
the top of the ninth with one out but had the tying run thrown out
at the plate.
Mustering only one hit through the first three innings, the
Bulldogs finally broke through against starter Marc Zecchino in the
fourth. Kevin Brown (Northborough, Mass.),
who has been red-hot in his first year in a Bulldog uniform,
hitting safely in the first seven games, got the rally started with
a double to lead off the inning.
Jordan English (Windsor Locks, Conn.) would
follow with a single, moving Brown up to second.
Jamie Skagerlind (Holden, Mass.) would reach
safely on a fielder's choice grounder to first, though Brown
would score on a throwing error on the play to put the Bulldogs
1-0. Good base running by English moved him into scoring
position at third. English had a huge day at the plate for
the Bulldogs as the junior hit safely in his first four
at-bats in the game.
English would score one batter later to make it 2-0 on a
sacrifice fly by David Soltis (Plainville, Conn.).
After Skagerlind stole second safely, the Bulldog sophomore would
scored on a single by Zakary Cianciolo (Prospect,
Conn.) to make it 3-0.
Virginia Tech (9-2) would threaten in the fifth. After the
first two batters reached safely, Brent Almeida (Fairhaven,
Mass.), making his first start of the season on the mound
for the Bulldogs, got Buddy Sosnoskie to fly
out. Steve Domecus worked a full-count walk to load the bases
with two outs, but Almeida and the Bulldogs escaped unharmed as
Anthony Sosnoskie flied out to Nick Campbell (Raynham,
Mass.) in center to end the inning.
The Hokies would finally get on the board in the sixth.
After giving up a double to Tim Smalling and a single to Ronnie
Sheban to put two runners on again with no-outs, Nick Laude came on
in relief of Almeida. Michael Seaborn would plate Smalling
with a sacrifice fly to center but the Bulldogs would get out of
the inning still in front 3-1.
An RBI single by Campbell to score Conor Carignan
(Norwich, Conn.) in the seventh made it 4-1 in favor
of the Bulldogs, but Virginia Tech would get the run back in the
bottom of the inning.
With bases with one out, Shaban singled off Matt
Griswold (Berlin, Conn.) who came on in relief
of Nick Laude (Wells, Maine) to cut the Bryant
lead in half, 4-2. After Seaborn struck out, M. Kaminski
worked a bases loaded walk against Griswold on a full-count,
scoring Anthony Sosnoskie to make it 4-3.
Virginia Tech would take its first lead of the game in the
bottom of the eight thanks to a two run home run by Domecus to make
it 5-4.
The Bulldogs nearly tied it in their last at-bat in the top of
the ninth, loading the bases with one out in the inning.
However, the Bulldogs ran out of luck as Carignan was thrown out at
home trying to score the game-tying run on a grounder to third by
Brown. Bryant's last chance ended when English, who was
4-for-4 in the game, struck out to end the game.
The teams will wrap up the two-game series Wednesday at 5:30
p.m.
