For Release: May 7, 2010
Contact: Jason Sullivan, SID / jsulliva@bryant.edu

BRYANT BASEBALL DEFEATS LONG ISLAND 5-0 FOR 10^TH-STRAIGHT CONFERENCE WIN

@ Brooklyn, N.Y. – Bryant 5, Long Island University 0 - BOXSCORE

Senior Brent Almeida (Fairhaven, Mass.) picked up his first complete game win of the season in Bryant's 5-0 win over LIU Friday.  www.dspics.com

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Brent Almeida (Fairhaven, Mass.) turned in another strong performance on the mound Friday afternoon with a scoreless nine-inning, five-hit outing to lead the Bryant University baseball team to a 5-0 win over Long Island University Friday afternoon at MCU Park in Brooklyn.

The win, Bryant's 10^th-straight conference win and 11^th of the last 13 games, improves the first-place Bulldogs' to 16-5 in the Northeast Conference (25-20 overall).

Almeida, a senior righty, has been steady all season long and has developed into a reliable Friday starter as the Bulldogs got off on the right foot in the first of the four-game weekend NEC series with the Blackbirds.  

The game was tight throughout as neither team could push across a run through the first six innings.

Until the top of the seventh when Bryant scored four times to take control late and later added a run in the top of the eighth.

Zakary Cianciolo (Prospect, Conn.) led off with a single to second.  With some good base running, Cianciolo would advance to third on a sacrifice bunt down the third base line by Jamie Skaglerind (Holden, Mass.) who would reach safely on the play.

Tim Norton (Barnstable, Mass.) would get Cianciolo home with the game's first run and what would prove to be the game winner on a sacrifice fly to center.  Connor Carignan (Norwich, Conn.) would reach on an error putting runners at the corners.  After a clean steal of second by Carignan, Kevin Brown (Northborough, Mass.) was hit by a pitch to load the bases. 

LIU (12-33, 9-16) lefty Adam Sauter would strike Jordan English out for the second out of the inning, but senior Jeff Vigurs (South Windsor, Conn.) came through with a big single to right to score both Skagerlind and Carignan.  Good base running once again by the Bulldogs allowed Brown to score after a misplay by the right fielder on the play, making it 4-0.

In the eighth, an RBI double by Cianciolo made it 5-0, more than enough for Almeida to finish strong and pick up his first complete game victory of the season and first shutout win of the year as well.  It was the senior's sixth complete game of his career and 14^th career victory.

Senior Nick Campbell (Raynham, Mass.) extended his current hit streak to 18 games with a single to left in the sixth inning.

Bryant and LIU will play a doubleheader Saturday before closing out the series Sunday with a 1 pm game. The Bulldogs are coming off back-to-back weekend conference sweeps of Fairleigh Dickinson and Wagner.