Baseball Edged by Wheaton, 3-2

Box Score

NORTON, Mass. -- The Wheaton College baseball team scored the final three runs in Friday's non-conference game against visiting Bridgewater State College, as the Lyons edged out the Bears, 3-2, despite stranding 15 runners and loading the bases in five different innings at Sidell Stadium.
 
Receiving votes in the D3baseball.com national poll and ranked second regionally by the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association (NEIBA), Wheaton knocked off Bridgewater State by a single run for the second time this season to improve to 19-7.  The Bears slipped to 12-11.
 
Freshman Justin Santiago (Bronx, NY) improved to 3-0 on the hill, going 6.1 innings while yielding the two runs on five hits with three strikeouts and four walks.  Sophomore David Longley (Brunswick, ME) fanned three Bear batters over 1.2 hitless frames, and senior closer Jon Shepard (Salisbury, MA) turned in a 1-2-3 ninth with two strikeouts for his fourth save of the spring.
 
Sophomore Hal Landers (Salem, NH) and freshman Eric Jensen (Gorham, NH) combined on five of Wheaton's eight hits, with Landers going 3-for-5 with a pair of bunt singles and Jensen recording two knocks and one run.  Junior Sean Munley (Trenton, NJ) drew two walks, was hit by a pitch twice and plated a run, while freshman Sean Ryan (Norton, MA) drove in a  run and swiped two bags.
 
Junior Tad Skelley (Wolfeboro, NH) drew two walks and scored once, senior Paul Malaguti (Andover, MA) had a pair of walks, and junior Hadi Raad (Hastings-on-Hudson, NY) accounted for a run and a walk.
 
Bridgewater State managed just five hits, as junior Ian Williams (Taunton, MA) went 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI, while senior Tom Couet (East Freetown, MA) smacked an RBI double to left during his team's two-run first inning.  Freshman Bryant Warner (Harwich, MA) suffered his initial loss of the season, surrendering two earned runs while scattering six hits with four strikeouts and six walks over five-plus innings.
 
A two-out rally for the Bears provided them their lone two runs, as Williams recorded an RBI single before scoring on Couet's two-bagger.  After jamming the bags in a scoreless first, Wheaton countered with two runs in the second, as back-to-back singles and a base on balls led to another bases-loaded situation.  Ryan plated the first run and Raad also scored on the play on an errant throw.
 
Santiago settled in after a tough first inning, retiring 13 of his next 16 batters while not allowing a hit before giving up a two-out single in the sixth.  The hosts left the bases loaded in each the fourth, sixth and seventh innings but did manage a run in the sixth, when Munley drew a two-out RBI walk.  Wheaton again loaded them up in the seventh with one down, but freshman relief pitcher Jonathan Surette (Lynn, MA) fanned a batter and induced a pop fly to squash the Lyon rally.