By Jim Fenton

WORCESTER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University softball team dropped into the loser's bracket of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament Thursday.

Senior Bella Gasbarro (Leominster, Mass.) hit a pair of home runs to power second-seeded Worcester State University past the fifth-seeded Bears, 8-2, at the Ralph Raymond Diamond.

BSU (18-21) will play an elimination game on Friday at 1 p.m. against the sixth-seeded8 Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts at Sullivan Field on the campus of Westfield State University.

Worcester State (24-14) faces Westfield State (36-1, 10 straight wins) in the winner's bracket game at 11 a.m.

A victory by the Bears would send them to a 3 p.m. elimination game against the loser of the Worcester State-Westfield State matchup.

Gasbarro hit a solo homer with to lead off the third inning and added a three-run shot with two outs in the fourth, part of a five-run inning.

The Bears were limited to four hits and struck out eight times against a pair of Lancers' pitchers.

Junior Sydney Schaefer (Swarthmore, Pa.) had a single and a double to lead BSU while sophomore Aubrey Carberry (Dartmouth, Mass.) contributed a double and senior Victoria Becker (Abington, Mass.) had a single.

Worcester State had 14 hits with senior Morgan Keefe (Dracut, Mass.) leading the way, going 3-for-4.

Gasbarro, senior Emma LaPoint (Westfield, Mass.), senior Camden Heenan (Webster, Mass.) and freshman Zoie Stevens (Claremont, N.H.) added two hits each.

The Lancers scored seven of their eight runs when there were two outs.

Junior Taylor Coonan (Grafton, Mass.) was the winning pitcher, allowing a run and two hits in five innings while striking out four. Junior Peyton Maloney (West Boylston, Mass.) went the final two innings, giving up a run and two hits with four strikeouts.

Junior Lily Gagnon (East Haven, Conn.) took the loss for BSU, giving up eight runs (five earned) in 3 2/3 innings. Junior Olivia Hargreaves (Weare, N.H.) went the final 2 1/3 innings, giving up just two hits.

The Bears held a 1-0 leadin the top of the first as senior Angelina Lynch (Taunton, Mass.) walked, went to second on a single by Schaefer and to third on a sacrifice bunt by junior Makayla Ansell (Menifee, Calif.). When Carberry was thrown out at first following a strikeout, Lynch scored.

The Lancers went ahead, 2-1, in the bottom of the inning, getting both runs after two were out.

LaPoint singled and scored on a double to center by Keefe, who went to third on a wild pitch and came home on a single by Stevens.

The lead went to 3-1 in the third on Gasbarro's homer to center.

Worcester State built the lead to 8-1 in the fourth with five runs scoring after two were out.

Junior Cali Brouillard (Millbury, Mass.) reached on an error and LaPoint singled before Gasbarro's three-run homer to left.

Keefe then tripled to right and scored on a Stevens' single up the middle. After a wild pitch, Stevens went to third on a single by Heenan and scored on an error.

BSU finished the scoring in the sixth when Schaefer doubled to right and pinch runner Savanah Dubois (New Bedford, Mass.), a junior, came home on a Carberry double to center with two outs.

MCLA lost to Westfield State, 8-0, in six innings on Thursday to drop into the loser's bracket game with the Bears.

BSU split a pair of games with the Trailblazers (19-19) in North Adams, Mass. on April 18, losing the opener, 1-0, and winning the second game, 3-2.