March 14, 2008

BRYANT SWEPT BY No. 6 WEST CHESTER IN DOUBLEHEADER SATURDAY

WEST CHESTER, Pa. -- The Bryant University baseball team was swept by sixth-ranked West Chester University in Saturday afternoon's doubleheader, 6-4 and 3-0, at Serpico Stadium.

West Chester junior righty Jason Bowman pitched a complete-game, two-hit shutout in the nightcap to lead the Golden Rams to a 3-0 victory in the nightcap.

Bowman (4-0) struck out eight without giving up a walk, while facing just four batters over the minimum. Bryant (9-8) advanced only one base runner past first in the second game.

His counterpart, Dan Lozeau (1-1) also went the distance, scattering seven hits over six innings and allowing three runs. Lozeau struck out one.

But in the first game of the day, the Bulldogs made it a close one. Bryant would get on the board first, taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first off a West Chester throwing error. Captain Pat McKenna singled to centerfield to drive in Nick Campbell, who had advanced to second on the error.

Bryant doubled its lead in the second inning, when Pat O'Connor got things going with a leadoff walk and took second on a hit-and-run groundout. Two outs later, the Bulldogs brought O'Connor home for their second run of the game off a Dave Muscatello single to left.

The Golden Rams came back to score four runs in the bottom of the third inning, to erase the 2-1 deficit, and would go on to add another run in the fifth for a 5-3 advantage.

The Bulldogs took another run in the top of the fourth on an RBI ground out by Dylan Stone that scored Jeff Vigurs, and scored again in the sixth, but it wouldn't be enough to get the win as West Chester rode the arm of starter Chris Powl the rest of the way for a 6-4 final.

Powl (3-0) allowed three earned runs on six hits and struck out four. Kevin Cobb (2-2) took the loss on the hill for Bryant, throwing 4.2 innings, yielding eight hits and four earned runs.

The Golden Rams increased their season-opening winning streak to 15 games with the pair of wins while Bryant fell to 9-8 on the season. Bryant is playing its second straight opponent ranked among the top six in the country. The Bulldogs, ranked third in the latest Northeast Regional poll, took one out of three from No. 1 Mount Olive during the week.

The Bulldogs and the Golden Rams will face off again Sunday afternoon in another doubleheader at Serpico Stadium. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.