Bridgeport And Molloy Split ECC Baseball Doubleheader On Saturday

Flushing, N.Y.-The University of Bridgeport baseball team split an East Coast Conference road doubleheader with the host Molloy College Lions on Saturday afternoon, as UB took game one, 5-2, and Molloy came back to earn the split with a 2-0 win in game two.  With the split, the Purple Knights are now 17-19 overall and 10-8 in the ECC.  Molloy is now 20-22 overall and 11-7 in conference play.

In game one, senior starting pitcher Shaun Hancock (Oakville, Ont., Canada) was simply outstanding, as he raised his season record to 4-2 with an eight-hit, complete game performance.  In his nine innings, Hancock allowed only one earned run; while he stuck two and issued two walks.

Bridgeport took advantage of three Molloy errors in the second inning to grab a 3-1 lead which they never relinquished on the way to the victory.

In the opener, the Purple Knights banged out a total of 13 hits. Bryan Kondor (Fr., Shelton, Conn.), John Ascenzia (Jr., West Haven, Conn.), Tim Bickford (Wallingford, Conn.), Jose-Luis Garcia (Sr., Bronx, N.Y.) and Jesse Solar (Jr., Marlton, N.J.) each had two hits in game one for UB.  Bickford had two doubles, and Kondor, Solar plus freshmen Matt Gagne (West Haven, Conn.) and Nick Zieniuk (Margate, N.J.) each had an RBI for the winners.

In the seven-inning nightcap, Molloy's Alex Miden limited Bridgeport to only four hits in a complete game win, and four UB errors helped the Lions score both runs.  UB sophomore Brian O'Keefe (Milford, Conn.) was the hard-luck loser, as he is now 3-4 on the season.  O'Keefe worked five strong innings in which he allowed two unearned runs while striking out five and walking only one.

The same two teams will close out their key East Coast Conference series with a doubleheader at West Haven High School on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m.