Baseball Drops Opener to Apprentice School, 4-1

VERO BEACH, Fla. – The Bridgewater State University baseball team opened the 2015 campaign with a 4-1 setback to The Apprentice School on Saturday afternoon in Vero Beach, Florida.

Apprentice improves to 5-3 with the win, while Bridgewater State falls to 0-1.

Jonathan Long (Virginia Beach, Va.) hurled seven scoreless innings for the Builders. Long (2-0) scattered four hits, walked one and fanned one.

David Holmes (North Easton, Mass.) suffered the loss on the hill for the Bears. Holmes (0-1) surrendered four runs (two earned) on nine hits with a walk and four strikeouts.  Shane Surette (Haverhill, Mass.) tossed a scoreless inning in relief.

Apprentice jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of third on a two-run triple by Mark Labrador (Casselberry, Fla.). Colin Wilber (Yorktown, Va.) led off the frame with a double and advanced to third two batters later as Brock Harris (Scottsville, Va.) reached on a throwing error by Holmes on an attempted bunt.  Labrador followed with his three-bagger.

A pair of infield errors to lead off the bottom of the fifth led to the Builder's third run of the game as Labrador singled to record his third RBI of the contest.

Apprentice tacked on another insurance run in the seventh as Labrador singled with two outs, stole second and scored on Brian Belvin's (Gloucester, Va.) RBI double.

The Bears plated their only run in the top of the ninth.  Keaghan Austin-MacInnis (Lakeville, Mass.) led off the frame with a double and scored on an RBI single off the bat of Ryan Manning (Plainville, Mass.).  Following an out, Anthony Deleo (Athol, Mass.) worked a walk to bring the tying run to the plate. Massie, however, induced Colin Ryan (Quincy, Mass.) to pop out to short and then fanned Sean Brooks (Braintree, Mass.)  to end the game.

Labrador went 3-for-4 with a run and three RBI to lead Apprentice.

Nick White (Bellingham, Mass.) reached safely twice (single, walk) in four plate appearances to lead the BSU offense. The Bears left eight men on and did not have a runner reach second base until the eighth inning.

Bridgewater State returns to the diamond on Sunday morning to take on Briarcliffe College at 9:00 AM.