Purple Knights Tame Lions, 6-2, To Advance To ECC Baseball Championship Saturday With An Unblemished Record

Brookhaven, N.Y.-For the third straight season, the University of Bridgeport baseball team has advanced to the Championship Saturday of the East Coast Conference Tournament, as the Purple Knights raced out to a 4-0 lead after three innings and went on to defeat the Molloy College Lions, 6-2, in a winners bracket game played on Friday afternoon at Dowling College in Brookhaven, N.Y.  2013 marks the first time in three seasons that UB heads into Saturday with and undefeated record, so the Purple Knights need only one win in two possible games against St. Thomas Aquinas to win the 2013 ECC Baseball crown and receive an automatic bid to next week's 2013 NCAA Division II Baseball National Championship East Regional.  Action on Saturday will begin at 10:00 a.m.  With the win, the Purple Knights head into Saturday's action with a 22-24 record.  Molloy is now 24-26.

Junior John Ascenzia (West Haven, Conn.) led the UB offense against the Lions with three hits in five trips to the plate.  Senior Mike Olszyk (Hamden, Conn.) went 2-for-4 with two RBI and three runs scored for the winners.  Sophomore Tim Bickford (Wallingford, Conn.) and freshman Bryan Kondor (Shelton, Conn.) had the other runs batted in for Bridgeport.

Sophomore starter Brian O'Keefe (Milford, Conn.) picked up the win for UB working 5.1 innings in which he allowed only one run to raise his season record to 5-4.

For the second straight day, senior Garrett Rogers (Rennselear, N.Y.) picked up the save out the Purple Knights' bullpen.  After recording the final out of UB's 7-3 win over St. Thomas Aquinas with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth in his team's 7-3 victory over St. Thomas Aquinas on Thursday, Garrett got out of a no outs, runners on second and third with the score 4-2 in favor of Bridgeport in the bottom of the eighth inning jam without allowing a run.  He also worked a scoreless ninth inning, so on the afternoon, Rogers worked 2.0 innings in which he allowed no runs on one hit with three strike outs and only one walk.

Alex Minden took the loss for Molloy, and Juan Borbon went 4-for-4 at the plate for the Lions.