Baseball Sweeps MCLA in Regular Season Finale

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – The Bridgewater State University baseball team wrapped up regular season play with a MASCAC doubleheader sweep of MCLA on Sunday afternoon in North Adams.

The visiting Bears posted a 2-1 victory in game one of the twinbill and completed the sweep with a 6-0 triumph in game two.

Game one looked as though the Trailblazers may upend the Bears as MCLA held a 1-0 lead heading into the top of the sixth on the strength of Bobby Beauchesne's second inning home run.

MCLA starter Daniel Gaines was putting up zeros and BSU starter Jeff Puopolo was cruising as well except for the one mistake to Beauchesne.

The Bears, however, finally got to Gaines in the sixth as John Garebedian reached on a two-base error.  One out later, Garebedian advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored the tying run on an errant throw to third by the MCLA catcher.

In the seventh, shortstop Corey Batista hit his second homer of the year right around the foul pole in left giving the Bears the 2-1 advantage and the Trailblazers went quietly in the seventh.

Gaines and Puopolo both went the distance.  Puopolo (3-3) allowed one run on three hits and five walks while striking out eight to post the complete game win.

Game two was scoreless through three when Joshua Ferreira led off the fourth with a single and David Pierce followed with a triple down the right-field line for the Bears.  Pierce later scored on an RBI groundout to shortstop to make it 2-0.

Bridgewater would tack on three more runs in the fifth as Matt Barsaleau doubled and scored on Garabedian's RBI single.  Ferreira then launched his fourth home run of the season, a two-run shot, to give BSU the 5-0 lead.  The Bears did all their damage in the fifth after starter Sean Hermance had retired the first two batters of the frame.

Bridgewater added a single run in the sixth as Keana Costa singled, moved to second on a wild pitch and came around to score on an infield error.

MCLA couldn't get much going with the bats and would muster only six hits all day in the two games.

Bears' starter Jim Balboni would go the distance picking up the game two victory.  Balboni (4-0) scattered three hits, walked two and struck out seven.

The Trailblazers finish the season at 8-22 overall and 1-13 in the MASCAC.  Bridgewater improves to 20-14 overall and 9-5 in conference play.  The Bears, who are seeded third in the MASCAC Tournament, will open tournament play on Thursday when they travel to Worcester State University to take on the second-seeded Lancers.