Baseball Falls to Wheaton, 14-3

NORTON, Mass. -- The Wheaton College baseball team earned a 14-3 win over visiting Bridgewater State University on Thursday afternoon.

The win bumps the Lyons to 25-10 on the season, while the Bears fall to 14-17.

Wheaton took a 1-0 lead in the second inning with Justin Silvestro coming in to score on a double to left field by Tyler Walsh.

 Back-to-back singles to right field helped the Bears jump ahead 2-1 in the top of the fourth. The first run came in on a hit by Devin Sanders, which was followed by an RBI single from Ryan Kelleher.

Joey Santigate tied things in the bottom half of the fourth with an RBI single to left, before a five-run fifth inning by the Lyons. Zachary Goodwin-Boyd capped off the scoring in the fifth with a two-run homerun to right.

Facing a 7-2 deficit, Bridgewater State posted another run in the top of the sixth as Keaghan Austin-MacInnis blasted a home run over the right field fence.

The Lyons tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the sixth with Matt Lavanchy and Silvestro coming around to score. Wheaton took a 13-3 advantage in the seventh, starting with a bases loaded, RBI single through the left side by Joshua LaJoie. Lavanchy knocked in the next run before an error by the Bears allowed Jimmy Smith to come home.

Wheaton ended the scoring in the eighth with a sacrifice fly from Jimmy Gianquitti that plated Ty Calabro.

Eight Wheaton pitchers took the mound with Jordan Jenkins picking up the win after 1.1 innings of work. Ryan Hayward collected the loss after five innings of action that saw him give up seven runs on 12 hits.

Sanders and Kelleher both went 2-for-4 at the plate for the Bears. Austin-MacInnis finished 1-for-3 at the plater with his team-leading third home run of the season.

Wheaton returns to action on Saturday, April 30 for a NEWMAC Tournament doubleheader against WPI at Clark University. The first game is set to begin at 12 p.m. Bridgewater travels to Johnson & Wales University on Friday afternoon to take on the Wildcats at 3:30.