Box Score

The Fairleigh Dickinson baseball team fell to Bryant Friday afternoon, 8-1, at a windy Conaty Park in Smithfield, RI, opening up a four-game NEC series.  With the victory, the Bulldogs improve to 27-15 (18-3 NEC) on the season, while the Knights fall to 19-20-1 (13-8 NEC) overall.

FDU was able to muster only three hits on the day, with two coming off the bat of freshman Jordan Ritz (Newport News, Va./Woodside).  Freshman Pat McClure (Fayetteville, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius ) drove home the Knights' lone run with a RBI sacrifice fly to center field in the top of the eighth, which scored junior Kyle Weeks (Middle Island, N.Y./Longwood), who doubled to right-center to lead off the inning.

Junior Craig Warner (Coral Springs, Fla./Stoneman Douglas) (2-4) was charged with the loss on the mound, allowing six earned runs on 10 hits in 7.0 innings of work.

Bryant's Peter Kelich, arguably the best pitcher in the NEC, limited FDU to one earned run on three hits, while walking one and striking out five in the complete-game effort.

The Bulldogs took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second on Mike Delponte's two-out solo home run over the right field fence.

In the bottom of the fourth, Bryant extended its lead to 3-0 on Jamie Skagerlind's two-run bomb to right field.

The turning of the point of the contest came in the bottom of the sixth.  With runners on second and third with two outs, Warner could not escape trouble as he yielded a two-run single to Delponte, which put the Bulldogs up 5-0.

Bryant scored another run in the bottom of the seventh and capped their scoring on the afternoon with Delponte's second home run of the day, a two-run shot over the right field fence.

Besides the eighth inning, the Knights only other scoring opportunity came in the top of the first when Ritz singled with one out and stole second.  Senior co-captain Ryan Kresky (Freehold, NJ/Freehold) hit a hard ball up the middle destined for center field, but Kelich snared the ball from above his head to throw Kresky out at first and save a potential run from scoring.  FDU also grounded into three double plays on the day.

Delponte went 3-for-4 with two home runs, five RBIs and two runs scored to lead the Bulldogs' 11-hit performance.  John Mullen and
Carl Anderson each added two hits, while Skagerline scored twice and drove home two with his home run. 

“We need to regroup a little bit,” said Head Coach Gary Puccio.  “I thought we played well defensively, and I thought Craig pitched very well.  We need to do a better job of attacking the ball.  Hopefully, we do better tomorrow.  No one said this series would be easy.”

The series will continue Saturday with a pair of seven-inning contests.  First pitch for game one is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.