Purple Knights Grab Two Big ECC Baseball Wins With Doubleheader Sweep At Mercy On Friday

Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.-The University of Bridgeport baseball team picked up a pair of big East Coast Conference wins on Friday afternoon as they continued to battle for postseason tournament positioning by posting a road sweep over the host Mercy College Mavericks.  The Purple Knights blanked Mercy, 7-0, in the nine-inning opener and completed the sweep with a 6-2 triumph in the seven-inning nightcap.  With the two wins, Bridgeport is now 14-16 overall and 8-6 in conference play.  Mercy slips to 6-29-1 overall and 3-12 in the ECC.

In the opener, seniors Shaun Hancock (Oakville, Ont., Canada) and Garrett Rogers (Rennselear, N.Y.) combined on seven-hit shutout.  Hancock upped his season record to 3-2, as the pitched eight scoreless innings, in which he allowed only five hits while fanning two and issuing one walk.

Senior Mike Olszyk (Hamden, Conn.) and sophomore Tim Bickford (Wallingford, Conn.) each had two hits for UB in game one, and freshman Nick Zieniuk (Margate, N.J.) drove in three runs for the winners.

In game two, the Bridgeport bats came alive as the Purple Knights banged out 12 hits in the seven-inning tilt led by junior John Ascenzia (West Haven, Conn.), who had three safeties.  Olszyk again had two hits, and junior Brock Roggie (Lowville, N.Y.) and freshman Alec Jannotta (Branford, Conn.) also added two hits for the Purple Knights.

On the mound in the nightcap, sophomore Brian O'Keefe (Milford, Conn.), the first of three Bridgeport hurlers worked 5.2 innings in which he allowed two unearned runs and struck out eight to notch his third win of 2013.

The same two teams will meet again on Sunday in Bridgeport at approximately 3:00 p.m. at the Ballpark at Harbor Yard when they close out their four-game conference series with another 9/7-nning doubleheader.