America East Baseball News & Notes: Bryant College is on a Roll

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, and With five weeks left in the regular season, the America East Baseball Conference is heading into the final third of the season. The Bryant College Bulldogs have a three-game lead on the rest of the league. UMass Lowell is climbing through the standings and sits in second place as the weekend nears. Here is how things look with the weekend series ahead.

Bryant (19-11, 8-1) had their hitting shoes on last weekend vs UAlbany (4-21, 3-5). They scored 39 runs in their three-game sweep of the Great Danes. Leadoff hitter, Zac Zyons, had a big series at the plate. He went 7-for-15 with seven RBI, 4 RS, and 2 home runs. He was one of several hitters who padded their stats against a UAlbany pitching staff that has had their problems this season.

Bryant heads into this weekend’s series vs Binghamton with the best team ERA in the league at 5.37. Gavin Noriega leads the league in both OPS at 1.164 and in runs scored with 32. The AE Player and Rookie of the Week went 7-of-14 (.500) with two doubles, two HR, six RBI, and nine runs scored. He finished a 4-0 week for Bryant with a .636% on-base.

They will face a Bearcats team that finds themselves in last place in the league at (13-15, 3-6). The one thing the Bearcats can do is swing the bats. They lead the league in team hitting with a .274 BA. They are also the best fielding team in the league with a .972% fielding percentage (27 errors in 28 games). Mike Gunning leads in slugging percentage at .734, RBI with 31, and home runs with 12. They will feature the AE Pitcher of the Week in Gabe Driscoll. Last Saturday vs the River Hawks he tossed a complete game four-hitter with nine strikeouts. He issued one walk, and an earned run, as the River Hawks could only muster three singles and a double. Driscoll is tied for 4th in the country with two complete games in eight starts.

The UMass Lowell River Hawks (12-18, 4-4) took two of three on the road at Binghamton to climb into second place in the conference. They followed that up by splitting their two mid-week games at home losing to Merrimack and then defeating Stonehill. Despite having a hard time driving in runs in scoring position at times, they are second in batting average in the league at .269. They are also the second-best fielding team in the league at .970% (32 errors in 30 games), have turned 28 double plays, which is tied for 29th in the country, and are tied for 19th in the country in double plays turned per game at .93.

They will host a Maine Black Bears (7-19, 3-5) team that is hard to figure out. Their pitching staff is all over the place. They have hit 44 batters so far this year and have thrown 46 wild pitches. Teams are hitting .290 against them. Their defense has not been much better with 34 errors committed in 26 games for a .961% fielding percentage. They do have the leading hitter in the league Zack Mann at .345. No question that things are not going well for the defending champions.

UMBC (11-15, 3-3) will be hosting UAlbany this weekend. They will enter that series coming off a big non-league win over Maryland of the Big 10 by a 4-2 score on Wednesday night. UMBC has the second-best team ERA in the league at 5.59. The staff is led by Sam Downs (2.94) and Jayden Shernell (3.48). On Offense, Kyle Eddington is second in BA at .342 and is fourth in on-base percentage at .451. Matt Ryan is 4th in OPS at 1.030, and third in doubles with 10. The Great Danes have struggled this spring. The best example is Jared Toby leads the league in grounded into double plays with five.

NJIT will play non-league baseball this weekend when they take on Quinnipiac in a three-game series that will be played in two different parks.

Next week we will see how this weekend played out.