Baseball Falls to La Roche College, 5-3

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- The Bridgewater State University baseball team dropped a 5-3 decision to La Roche College on Thursday night in Vero Beach, Florida.

The game was originally part of a daytime doubleheader but was changed to a single night game due to morning and early afternoon rain.

La Roche improves to 6-1 with the win, while Bridgewater State falls to 4-2.

Sophomore James Connelly (Deer Lakes, Pa.) shutdown the Bridgewater offense over the first six inning to record his second win of the young season.  Connelly (2-0) allowed just one unearned run on four hits over six innings as he walked one and struck out seven.

Freshman Tim Devine (Springdale, Pa.) picked up the three-inning save for the Redhawks.  Devine gave up two runs on three hits and a pair of walks while striking out two.

Junior right-hander Dave Billotte (Norton, Mass.) suffered the loss on the mound for the Bears.  Billotte (0-1) went 7 1/3 innings and was charged with four runs, only one of which was earned.  He gave up 11 hits, walked two and struck out eight.

Bridgewater committed six infield errors during the game and also left nine runners on base.  La Roche stranded 12 runners and added two miscues of their own.

Juniors Mitchell Meyers (Freedom, Pa.) and Ed Skoneiczny (Pittsburgh, Pa.)  both went 3-for-5 at the plate to lead the Redhawk's 12-hit attack.  Freshman Sean Lubin (Bridgeville, Pa.) and sophomore Brandon Mosely (New Brighton, Pa.) added two hits apiece

Lubin got the Redhawks on the board in the first inning as he singled with one out, moved to second on a walk, stole third and scored on a passed ball.  Lubin made it a 2-0 game as he opened the third with a base hit, advanced to second on a groundout and scored on an infield throwing error. 

Bridgewater cut the deficit in half with a single run in the sixth.  Senior Matt Greenberg (Norwell, Mass.) reached on an error with one out, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on an Ian Williams (Taunton, Mass.) RBI single.

La Roche took advantage of two BSU errors in the eighth to push across two more runs.  Bridgewater responded in the bottom half of the innings as Williams doubled home sophomore David Pierce (East Bridgewater, Mass.) who had reached on a fielder's choice groundout and moved to second on a wild pitch.

The Redhawks would add another run in the ninth on an RBI single by Myers.

Trailing 5-2, Bridgewater put runners on second and third with one out on a walk and a Joshua Ferreira (Fall River, Mass.) double.  Sophomore Tyler Dennis (Stoughton, Mass.) grounded out to third to make it 5-3, but Devine got the final batter to strike out looking to end the game. 

Ferreira led the way for BSU as he went 3-for-5 with two doubles. Williams doubled and singled in four at bats and drove in two runs.

The Bears will wrap up their Florida trip on Friday at noon when they take on Salve Regina University.