BRIDGEWATER, Mass. – The Bridgewater State University baseball team dropped a pair of games to the University of Southern Maine in a non-conference doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at Alumni Park in Bridgewater. The visiting Huskies posted a 9-6 victory in the opener and completed the sweep with a 2-1 triumph in game two.
Southern Maine improves to 5-1 with the two wins, while Bridgewater slips to 6-5.
In the opener, the Huskies jumped ahead with a four-run second inning on a two-run single by Brett Barrett (Keene, N.H.) and RBI ground outs by Anthony Pisani (Cheshire, Conn.) and David Ricker (Winthrop, Maine).
The Bears answered with five runs in the bottom half of the inning as Keane Costa (Fairhaven, Mass.) doubled home two runs to start the rally. James Gilmore (Mansfield, Mass.) followed with a single and Tory Buck (Shelburne Falls, Mass.) plated Costa with a two-bagger. John Garabedian (Mansfield, Mass.) reached on an error to score Gilmore and Buck crossed the plate on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Sean Riley (Fairhaven, Mass.).
Southern Maine would take the lead for good in the fifth as the first five batters of the inning reached safely. Following a walk, Tucker White (Deerfield, N.H.) gave USM the 6-5 lead with a two-run homer. John Carey (South Portland, Maine) followed with a double and scored on Nick Grady's (Whitefield, Maine) triple. Barrett singled home Grady to make the score 8-5 in favor of the Huskies.
The Bears tallied a run in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI single by Riley, but Southern Maine answered with a run of their own in the top of the sixth on an RBI single by Grady to account for the final score of 9-6.
Ben Ives (Portland, Maine) went the first eight innings to pick up the win for the Huskies. Ives (3-0) gave up six runs on eight hits with a walk and nine strikeouts. Nick Douglass (Poland, Maine) hurled a one-two-three ninth with a pair of strikeouts to record the save.
Southern Maine banged out 13 hits with Grady leading the way with a 3-for-5 performance at the plate. White, Carey, Barrett and Matt Verrier (Norway, Maine).added two hits apiece.
Corey Batista (Fall River, Mass.) suffered the loss on the mound for the Bears in the complete-game, 162-pitch effort. Batista (1-2) allowed nine runs on 13 hits as he walked six batters, hit two and struck out five.
Ian Williams (Taunton, Mass.) paced the Bears' eight-hit attack with a pair of singles in four at bats, while Costa and Riley finished with two RBI apiece.
In the nightcap, Logan Carman (Newfields, N.H.) limited the Bears to just one unearned run on four hits over 8 1/3 innings of work to lead Southern Maine to the 2-1 victory and sweep of the twinbill.
Trailing 1-0, the Huskies put runners on second and third with one out in the third on back-to-back walks to Dylan Morris (Bangor, Maine) and Jake Glauser (Goffstown, N.H.) and a sacrifice bunt by Pisani. Ricker plated Morris with game-tying run with sacrifice fly to right.
The score remained 1-1 until the sixth when Forrest Chadwick (Gardiner, Maine) led off the frame with a double and, one out later, scored on White's RBI double.
After giving up an unearned run in the second on an RBI infield single by Batista, Carman shut down the Bears until running into trouble in the ninth.
With one out, Craig Stewart (Brockton, Mass.) singled and moved to second on a wild pitch. Carman then hit Costa on a 2-2 pitch to put runners on first and second. Douglass came on in relief of Carman and, after a wild pitch, issued an intentional walk to load the bases. Douglass then struck out the next two batters to post his third save of the season and give the Huskies the sweep.
The win marked the first of the season for Carman as he walked two and struck out four. He threw 116 pitches.
Jim Balboni (Townsend, Mass.) took the loss for the Bears despite pitching well. Balboni (1-2) gave up two runs on seven hits with four walks and four strikeouts in 8 1/3 innings of work.
White and Carey notched two hits apiece for Southern Maine, while Buck had a pair of hits to lead Bridgewater State.
In upcoming action, the Bears host Husson University in a twinbill on Sunday beginning at noon. The Huskies take on Worcester State in a doubleheader on Thursday at noon in Winter Haven, Florida.