SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Sophomore James Karinchak (Walden, N.Y.) struck out seven over six scoreless innings to lead the Bryant University baseball team to a 6-1 victory over Army in the opening game of the Penn St. Baseball Tournament on Friday in Cary, N.C.

The victory is the Bulldogs' (1-0) first on opening day since the 2012 season and just their second opening day victory at the Division I level. The Bulldogs and the Black Knights (0-1) were meeting for the first time in program history.

Karinchak had to work out of a first inning jam but settled down to allow just four hits, walk one and strikeout seven over six scoreless frames. He allowed a leadoff single in the first but rebounded to strike out Keegan Vega looking to strand runners on the corners. Karinchak then fanned two in the second and retired the next nine batters in order on just 20 pitches. Army threatened again in the sixth, putting runners on first and second with two outs, but Karinchak struck out Matt Hudgins and Vega looking to end the inning and his outing.

Army's starter Jeremy Mortensen also started strong, retiring the first six batters he faced, but hit trouble in the middle innings. Senior Zach Wood (Griswold, Conn.) worked a leadoff walk in the third and then stole second. Junior Cole Fabio (Mahwah, N.J.) brought home Wood with the first run of the game with a two-strike, two-out single to right three batters later.

The Black and Gold extended their lead with two more runs in the fourth. Senior Buck McCarthy (Saugus, Mass.) and junior Brandon Bingel (Peabody, Mass.) collected back-to-back one-out singles and Wood followed with a two-out, two-run double down the left field line to make it 3-0.

Bryant wrapped up its scoring with a three-run eighth inning. McCarthy opened the frame with a monstrous solo home run to left field, his 11th career homer. Bingel restarted the inning with a walk, moved to second on a sac bunt from senior AJ Zarozny (Shrewsbury, Mass.) and scored on a two-strike, two-out double from senior Dan Cellucci (Sudbury, Mass.). Junior Joe Paparelli (Preston, Conn.) followed with an RBI single up the middle to make it 6-0.

Sophomore Justin Snyder (Georgetown, Mass.) pitched the final three innings in relief of Karinchak to earn his first-career save. He allowed an unearned run on one hit, didn't walk a batter and tied a career-high with four strikeouts over three innings.

Fabio (2-5, RBI), McCarthy (2-5, 2R, RBI) and Paparelli (2-4, RBI) all collected two hits in Bryant's 10-hit attack. Army's Jon Rosoff posted a pair of hits and David Monge drove in the only Black Knight run with a sac fly in the eighth inning.

The Bulldogs continue their opening weekend with a pair of games against Monmouth beginning at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday afternoon at the USA Baseball Complex.