Bryant’s NCAA tournament run ends
Sunday, June 02, 2013
The Razorbacks giveth, and the Razorbacks taketh away.
After stunning 2nd seeded Arkansas in last Friday's NCAA baseball tournament opener in Manhattan, KS by a 4-1 score, the Bryant Bulldogs lost to those same Razorbacks from the Southeastern Conference Sunday 12-3 in a payback game. The defeat in the double-elimination tournament knocks Bryant out from their first-ever NCAA appearance, after dropping a 7-1 decision to top-seeded Kansas State of the Big 12 Conference on Saturday.
Bryant's season ends with a school-record 45 wins (45-18-1 overall) and the Northeast Conference championship.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTSenior Kevin Brown broke a 1-1 tie with an RBI single in the eighth inning Friday night as the Bulldogs scored three runs in the inning on the way to their stunning 4-1 victory over Arkansas in the first round of the Manhattan Regional. The victory was the first-ever Division I NCAA tournament win for not only the Bulldogs' baseball team, but for the entire Bryant University Athletics Department.
"I'm really pleased with our guys, they played a great game," head coach Steve Owens said. "They gave a very complete effort and I'm just pleased that they were able to perform well and play nine innings of good baseball."
In the winners' bracket game Saturday against top-seed Kansas State, the Wildcats broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning with four runs. An infield error put the leadoff runner on, and a one-out single put runners on the corners for K-State in the top of the inning. Bryant then called on graduate student John Healy (Cranston, RI) in relief of starter Craig Schlitter but CF Jared King came through, lacing a 2-2 pitch into the right-center field gap to score both runners and give the Wildcats a 3-1 lead. K-State tacked on two more runs in the inning as King scored on a wild pitch and another infield error.
As a result of the 7-1 defeat, the Bulldogs then found themselves facing Arkansas once again, in an elimination game this time around as the Razorbacks had previously eliminated Wichita State on Saturday. The Hogs jumped on the Dogs from the outset, scoring three runs in the first and four more in the 3rd inning to take a commanding 7-1 lead. 3rd baseman Kevin Brown homered in the bottom of the first for the first Bryant score.
The Bulldogs added another run in the sixth as senior Dan Muscatello drove home sophomore Carl Anderson on a single to left-center to make it 7-2. The Razorbacks put the game away in the 7th however, by adding five more runs, coming on a Tyler Spoon run-scoring single, a sacrifice fly and Jacob Mahan's base hit that plated two more. Bryant added a final run in the bottom of the eighth, as Anderson grounded into a fielders' choice that scored Daniel St. George to make it 12-3, and loaded the bases in the 9th before a double play ended the threat - and the game.
