Scouting Bulldogs a project

FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas catcher Jake Wise’s reaction upon meeting Kevin Brown last summer in the Cape Cod League would probably be pretty typical for anyone living south of the Mason-Dixon line.

Wise asked Brown, a teammate with Arkansas infielder Dominic Ficociello on the Orleans Firebirds, where he played college ball and when Brown replied, “Bryant University,” Wise was at a loss.

“He said his school and I was like, ‘I don’t mean to be rude, but where is that?’ Is it D-I?’” Wise told reporters this week after the Razorbacks were paired against Bryant for a first-round game at the NCAA Manhattan Regional at Kansas State.

Brown laughed when apprised of Wise’s anecdote.

“It’s funny,” he said.“When you talk to kids like him in those summer leagues, especially out in the big states where you guys are from, they don’t know where us little New Englanders are from, you know?”

Bryant is located in Smithfield, R.I., and the Bulldogs (44-16-1) are the regular season and tournament champions from the Northeast Conference. They have a chance this weekend to capture the fancy of America’s college baseball fans with their feelgood story, just as little Stonybrook did last year.

“We were Division II five years ago,” third-year Bryant Coach Steve Owens said. “The program had to go through four years of probation, where you played a DI schedule but you couldn’t play in the postseason.”

In their first year with postseason eligibility, Bryant charged through the NEC with a 27-5 record, winning seven of eight league series and defeating Sacred Heart 8-0 in the conference championship game.

Winning is nothing new for the Bulldogs, who have claimed their conference regular season title three of the past four years with no postseason rewards to show for it.

“It’s tough to see the second-place team go ahead and advance over us,” Brown said. “So that was always hard.

“Us seniors have been waiting for this moment for four years. When we committed to Bryant, we had it in the back of our minds that we could be at the forefront of this Division I era and everything.”

Bryant’s winning formula is much like Arkansas’ plan: Stock up with good pitchers and scrape for runs the best you can. The Bulldogs rank 10th nationally in team earned-run average (2.63). Arkansas is first nationally (1.87).

“We pitch it pretty well,” Owens said. “I don’t think we’re one-dimensional. I think we’re a pretty good club all around. We have a good fielding percentage. We run a little bit. We’ve got a little bit of power and we have good starting pitching and a pretty good bullpen. We don’t have one style that we kind of play in.”

The Bulldogs are 64th nationally in batting average(.289), 52nd in runs (357) and 29th in fielding percentage (.975).

“Our pitching has been our strength all year,” Brown said. “We’ve got five real, real good starters and a great bullpen, and our hitting’s really coming along as of late.”

Bryant will start senior Peter Kelich, a 6-2 right-hander with a 7-4 record and a 2.53 ERA, against Arkansas on Friday.

“He’s got 33 wins in his career, and he’s just a very good pitcher that’s mature,” Owens said. “He knows how to handle pressure. He gives us a good quality start every time out. He’s our best guy.”

The Razorbacks’ scouting report on Bryant was pretty thin as of Tuesday afternoon,though the process will be ongoing until Friday’s 7 p.m. first pitch.

“We’re still kind of looking for stuff,” Ficociello said. “We’re kind of going into it blind right now. What we do know is they’re No. 10 in the nation in ERA as a pitching staff, so that means they’re pretty darn good.

“They’re probably not going to have any flamethrowers, as far as the starting guys go. They’re like 88 [mph] to 91, I think, maybe 92. They’re good pitchers.”

“We’re just going to go out and play our game,” Wise said. “If you don’t have a scouting report as well, then you’re going to have to go out there and play to your strengths.”