No. 1 Bryant primed for start of NEC Tournament
Bulldogs head to Norwich out to atone for 2017
SMITHFIELD — Bryant sophomore first baseman Chris Wright, of Cumberland, and redshirt freshman superstar Ryan Ward are acutely aware that regular-season success doesn’t mean all that much if you don’t finish the job on Memorial Day weekend at Dodd Stadium.
For the seventh straight season the Bulldogs clinched at least a share of the Northeast Conference title and will be the No. 1 seed at the NEC tournament, which begins tomorrow at noon at Norwich, Conn.’s Dodd Stadium.
Last season, the Bulldogs were riding high going into the conference tournament, but a 3-2 loss to No. 4 Sacred Heart in the winners’ bracket semifinals was followed 24 hours later by a 6-5 losers’ bracket defeat to Wagner.
And just like that, the season was over.
“After last year, we said this can’t happen to us again,” Wright said after practice Tuesday afternoon. “We don’t want this to happen to us again. We’ve worked hard all year to make sure that doesn’t happen. This week we’re going to find out if it pans out for us or not.”
“We’re determined to show that last year was a fluke,” said Ward, who watched from the dugout last season after an injury forced him to red shirt. “We’re coming back this year ready to go and looking for a championship.”
Bryant (31-21-1, 21-7 Northeast Conference) watched video in their locker room inside the Conaty Indoor Center of their winners’ bracket semifinal opponent, No. 4 Mount St. Mary’s.
Of course, Bryant coach Steve Owens and the Bulldogs won’t have to go too far back in their scouting report to learn much about the Mountaineers because the squads met in the final weekend of the regular season in Emmitsburg, Mary. Bryant won two of the three games in the series, including Friday’s 16-3 victory to clinch a share of the regular-season title with Wagner.
The Bulldogs expect to face hard-throwing lefty Trey McGough, who fired a complete-game 5-hitter in a 6-1 victory over the Bulldogs on March 30 at Brown. McGough wasn’t nearly as effective last week, as the Bulldogs knocked out him out the game in five innings and went on to earn a 9-0 victory.
“It’s different [tomorrow]. They have a good pitcher who beat us earlier in the year and they have a cou- ple of good middle infielders who are upperclassmen with high batting averages,” Owens said. “This is a team that is hungry because they haven’t been in the tournament in a while. [McGough] is a good lefty who throws in the upper 80s with a good curveball.”
McGough will likely be opposed by a lefty, Bryant sophomore Steve Theetge, who was the NEC co-Pitcher of the Week last week after allowing two hits in six scoreless innings in the series opener. In his last two starts, Theetge has allowed just five hits and a run in 13 innings of work.
Mount St. Mary’s (21-31, 13-15 NEC) is led offensively by junior shortstop Patrick Causa (46 RBIs and an .878 OPS) and second baseman Alex Kriss (22 RBIs and an .841 OPS).
While Mount St. Mary’s scored just 268 runs this season, the Bulldogs produced 350 runs and a lot of the credit has to go to Ward, a versatile outfielder from Millbury Mass. The lefty hit eight home runs and drove in 49, but his peripheral numbers are truly astounding.
Ward had an of OPS 1.091 and he led the nation with 95 hits. His number during conference play are even more impressive. Ward batted .451 in 28 conference games with an on-base percentage of .489 and a slugging percentage of .746. He struck out once in 134 NEC plate appearances.
“Being able to watch the team last year really helped because I learned what pitchers were going to throw in what situations,” Ward said. “I didn’t see a lot of changes in the way I was pitched because I have been moved around the lineup to different spots. I’m seeing a lot more fastballs away and a lot of lefty-lefty change-ups.”
“Ryan has just been a really good player for us,” Owens said. “He’s played center, left and second base because of the injuries we’ve had – he’s a ballplayer. He’s a natural hitter and he’s aggressive. He hits multiple different pitches and he hits them hard. He has good plate coverage and he doesn’t strike out. There’s not a lot of weaknesses.”
For the second straight season Owens has been down multiple position players for long stretches of the season because of injuries. Bryant started the season 0-7 and the losses were compounded by the a season-ending injury to all-conference sophomore infielder Jimmy Titus, who was hurt in the first series of the season against Arizona.
The Bulldogs started conference play 1-3 after losing a series to the No. 2 Seahawks, but then Ward, catcher Mickey Gaspar, outfielder James Ciliento and Wright helped the reigning champions win 11 of their next 12 conference games to return to the top of the conference. The Bulldogs won their final seven conference series.
Wright, a multiple-time AllStater for Cumberland, was a big reason for the improvement. In 25 conference contests, Wright had eight doubles, two homers, 24 RBIs and 20 runs scored. The sophomore, who had an OPS of .980 in conference games, carries a 12-game hitting streak into Thursday’s game.
“I just put in extra work every day with our coaches,” Wright said. “I’m just trying to stay on my backside a little better and keep my weight between my legs. It just worked out in the end. We came together as a team as the season went a long. We started playing for each other instead of ourselves. Our chemistry was amazing.”
Wagner and No. 3 LIU Brooklyn will play in the other winners’ bracket semifinal at 4 p.m. The two losers will play an elimination game Friday at noon and the winners will play at 4 p.m. A conference champion could be crowned Saturday at 4 p.m. The if-necessary title game is Sunday at noon.
“We’ve been fortunate enough to win our conference for seven years in a row,” Owens said. “We’ve won the tournament three of the five times we’ve been eligible to win it. We hope that we pitch it, hit it and field it at a high level and things go our way. We want the opportunity to advance out of the tournament and to a regional.”
BULLDOG BITS
Wright’s impressive season has earned him a spot in the prestigious Cape Cod League with the Brewster Whitecaps. Wright, who will find out who his host family is in the coming weeks, said he will spend the summer coaching baseball camps the teams puts on.
“I’m really excited about it,” Wright said. “It should be really fun seeing some really good arms and playing with some other really good players. I’m just excited to go down there and I hope they’re happy to have me.”
Wright has only pitched 1.1 innings this season because the Bulldogs are down so many position players. Owens said there’s still potential for Wright to pitch this weekend if the Bulldogs are forced into the losers’ bracket and need arms.
Scituate native Sam Owens is well known to Blackstone Valley baseball fans after guiding Navigant Post 85 to the state title last season. The Bryant true freshman shortstop was thrust into a starting role early in the season because of injuries and went on to hit .235 with two home runs, 25 RBIs and 30 runs scored. Owens also had 122 assists, 64 putouts and 15 errors for a .921 fielding percentage.
“He’s played great,” said Steve Owens, who just happens to be Sam’s father. “The job he’s done filling the void at shortstop that I don’t think anyone else could have filled. He’s been very valuable for us. He had a great start hitting against elite pitching. He played really good defense for us with the exception of two or three days. He’s also gotten some of the biggest hits we’ve had all year.”
Owens will not be at Renaud Field to help Navigant defend its state title this summer because he’s taking his talents to North Adams (Mass.) of the NECBL.