WESTFIELD, Mass. – The Westfield State University baseball team posted a 7-3 win over visiting Bridgewater State University in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) contest on Monday afternoon at Bud & Jim Hagan Field.
The Owls improve to 22-11 on the season and 13-5 (1st place) in the MASCAC. while the visiting Bears fall to 13-19 overall and 8-10 (6th place) in conference play. Both teams have three MASCAC games remaining on the schedule. The top six teams in the conference standings earn a spot in next week's MASCAC Tournament.
Patrick Jordan allowed one run on six hits over 6 2/3 innings to earn the win on the mound for the Owls. Jordan (2-2) walked one and fanned one.
Senior Anthony Crowley (Bellingham, Mass.) went 2-for-4 with a double, triple and three runs batted in to lead the Westfield offense.
The Owls got on the board with an unearned run in the bottom of the first inning. Back-to-back base hits by Beach and Martin and a BSU throwing error put runners at the corners with nobody out. Crowley then grounded into a double play with Beach scoring on the play.
The Bears pushed across the tying run in the top of the fifth. Three consecutive singles by freshmen Liam Bell (Wells, Maine) and Ruben Gonzalez (Stoughton, Mass.), and senior Kevin Bresciani (Hopedale, Mass.) loaded the bases with one out. Junior Lewis Robinson (New Britain, Conn.) followed with a sacrifice fly to right to plate Bell and knot the score at 1-1.
Westfield reclaimed the lead for good in the home half of the fifth as Day walked with one out and scored on an RBI triple off the bat of junior Michael Cruz (Springfield, Mass.). Cruz trotted home on freshman Damien Maniscalco's (Branford, Conn.) sacrifice fly to give the Owls a 3-1 lead.
Westfield tacked on a run in the sixth as Crowley tripled and scored on junior Jake Gibb's (Stoughton, Mass.) RBI single. The Owls extended the lead to 7-1 on Crowley's three-run double with two outs in the seventh. All three runs were unearned due to a BSU error earlier in the inning.
The Bears capped off the scoring with a pair of unearned runs in the top of the ninth. Sophomore Patrick Hagerty (Stoughton, Mass.) reached on an error and advanced to third on a double by senior Gavin Sparkman (Beverly, Mass.). Both runners would come around to score on back-to-back RBI ground outs by freshman David Skiendiel (Norton, Mass. and Bell.
Bresciani finished 3-for-4 at the plate to extend his hitting streak to nine game. Bresciani is batting .548 (17-31) during the streak.
Sophomore Trever Dennett (Kingston, Mass.) gave up six runs, only three of which were earned, on six hits in the setback for the Bears. Dennett (1-2) walked two and struck out two.
Both teams are back in action on Tuesday afternoon at 3:30. The Bears entertain nationally ranked Wheaton College, while the Owls travel to Nichols College.