Baseball Wins Game One of Twinbill to Keep MASCAC Tournament Hopes Alive

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – The Bridgewater State University baseball team posted a 7-1 win over host MCLA in game one of a MASCAC doubleheader in North Adams on Monday afternoon.

With the win, Bridgewater improves to 12-20 on the season and 5-8 in the MASCAC.  The Bears need a win in game two of the twinbill to secure a spot in this week's MASCAC Tournament.  MCLA falls to 3-22 overall and 1-12 in conference play.

Andy Sadoski (Harwich, Mass.) went the distance on the hill in game one for the Bears as  he allowed just one run on six hits.  Sadoski (5-4) walked two and fanned three.

The Bears pushed across a run in the first inning as Jacob Souza (Acushnet, Mass.) led off the game with a base hit, moved to second on a ground out and scored on Ryan Manning's (Plainville, Mass.) RBI single.

Bridgewater loaded the bases with nobody out in the second on successive singles by Sean Brooks (Braintree, Mass.), Billy Mitchell (Walpole, Mass.) and Shane Varnadore (Brockton, Mass.).  A fielder's choice ground out by Souza plated Brooks with the Bears' second run of the game.  A Trailblazer error with Manning batting allowed both Mitchell and Souza to score and make it a 4-0 game.

Mitchell singled home Keaghan Austin-MacInnis (Lakeville, Mass.) in the third to increase the BSU advantage to 5-0.  Austin-MacInnis had reached on an error to open the frame and moved to second  on a sacrifice bunt.

The Trailblazers got on the board in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI single off the bat of Rory Slattery (Pittsfield, Mass.).

The Bears answered in the top half of the seventh on a bases loaded, two-run single by Brooks scoring Ryan and Austin-MacInnis.

Austin-MacInnis (2-4), Brooks (2-3), Mitchell (2-4) and Varnadore (2-3) finished with two hits apiece to highlight the Bears' 12-hit attack.

Mike Mancivalano (Pittsfield, Mass.) allowed five runs (three earned) over 2 1/3 innings in the loss for MCLA.  Mancivalano (1-5) gave up six hits and a walked one.