Baseball Sweeps Framingham State in MASCAC Twinbill

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University baseball team swept a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) doubleheader against Framingham State University in the regular season finale for both teams on Saturday afternoon at Alumni Park.

The Bears won the opener, 3-2, and completed the sweep with an 8-1 victory in game two.

Bridgewater State improves to 16-18 on the season and 7-7 in the MASCAC. The Bears are the #5 seed in next week's MASCAC Tournament and will travel to fourth-seeded Westfield State University for an opening round contest on Thursday afternoon at three.

Framingham State falls to 10-26 overall and 5-9 in conference play. The Rams are seeded sixth in the tournament and head to Fitchburg State University on Thursday for a first round game with the third-seeded Falcons.

In game one, the Bears trailed 2-0 heading into the bottom of the third but rallied for three runs in the frame to take the lead. That would be all the scoring in the contest as BSU started David Holmes (North Easton, Mass.) kept the Rams off the board the rest of the way.

Holmes (5-1) went the distance allowing two runs on ten hits with a pair of walks and four strikeouts.

Travis Ritchie (Taunton, Mass.) and Anthony Licciardello (Haverhill, Mass.) each went 2-for-3 to pace the Bears' offense.

In the third, Matt Cassese (Taunton, Mass.) was hit by a pitch to start the rally. After a sacrifice bunt, Ritchie reached on a bunt single to put runners at the corners. Following an out, Ryan Feeney (East Bridgewater, Mass.) beat out an infield single to plate Cassese from third. Two big Framingham errors on a potential inning-ending ground out allowed both Ritchie and Feeney to score as the Bears took the 3-2 lead.

The Rams scored a run in the first on an RBI single by Ryan Wardwell (Hudson, Mass.) and added a run in the third on Kyle Pileski's (Bristol, Conn.) RBI single.

Matthew Brockett (Guilford, Conn.), Jonathan Chapman (Waltham, Mass.) and Emmanuel Powers (Malden, Mass.) each finished 2-for-4 at the plate to highlight the Rams' ten-hit attack.

Dillon Corliss (Winterport, Maine) gave up three runs (one earned) on six hits in five innings of work in the setback. Corliss (3-4) did not walk a batter and fanned one.

In game two, the Bears pushed across three runs on six hits in the first inning and cruised to the 8-1 victory.

Shane Surette (Haverhill, Mass.) picked up the complete game win on the mound for the hosts. Surette (5-2) allowed one run on seven hits with five walks and three strikeouts.

Scott O'Brien (East Bridgewater, Mass.) went 3-for-4 with a double, three runs scored and an RBI to lead the way for the Bears. Reed Pike (Bellingham, Mass.) reached safely three times as he was 2-for-3 with a double, a walk, two runs and two RBI. Feeney went 2-for-4 with a double, a run and an RBI in game two, while, Drew Gentile (Lynn, Mass.) finished 2-for-4 with a pair of runs batted in.

Feeney and Pike connected for back-to-back RBI doubles in the first while Brandon Hoyle (Bridgewater, Mass.) added a run-scoring single. The Bears tacked on a pair of runs in the third on Gentile's two-run base knock. An RBI triple to deep centerfield by Davide Tamarez (Roxbury, Mass.) in the fourth extended the BSU advantage to 6-0.

Framingham got on the board in the top of the fifth on Wardwell's RBI single.

Bridgewater capped off the scoring with a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth. O'Brien doubled home the first run of the frame while Pike added an RBI single.

Chapman was the only Ram with multiple hits in the nightcap as he singled twice in four at bats.

Al Wallach (Nahant, Mass.) allowed five runs on eight hits over three innings in the loss. Wallach (1-4) walked two, hit a batter and fanned one.