Spring Sports Wrap-Up

By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University spring athletics season featured two teams qualifying for NCAA Division III tournaments and a women's track standout advancing to the national championship meet.

The Bears' baseball team made it five straight appearances in the NCAAs after winning both the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference regular-season and tourney titles for a fifth year in a row.

The BSU men's tennis team won the Little East Conference regular-season and tourney championships for the second time in three seasons for a trip to the NCAAs.

Sprinter Grace Inacio (Taunton, Mass.) wound up her sophomore year by earning a spot in the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships in La Crosse, Wis., on Memorial Day Weekend.

In addition, the Bears' men's track & field team kept its MASCAC dominance going by winning the conference championship for an eighth straight season.

Those were the highlights of the final stretch of the 2025-26 academic year that began with a lacrosse game Feb. 18 against Wheaton College and ends with Inacio racing in the 100-meter dash at the NCAAs.

BSU athletics will begin again in late August when the football, men's and women's soccer teams, men's and women's cross country teams, field hockey, volleyball, women's tennis and equestrian teams begin practicing for their 2026 seasons.

BASEBALL

The Bears won 30 games for the fourth time in five seasons, finishing 30-10, including 21-3 in the MASCAC.

BSU won the conference tourney in dramatic fashion, scoring seven runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to stun Worcester State, 12-11.

If the Bears did not rally, a winner-take-all game would have been played a day later at Alumni Park.

BSU made the NCAAs for the 19th time and lost to a pair of nationally ranked teams in Maryland. The Bears were defeated by eventual regional winner and host Salisbury, 11-2, and Mount Union, 15-6.

Greg Zackrison was named the MASCAC Co-Coach of the Year after guiding BSU to another title.

Five players earned spots on the all-conference first team, including junior center fielder Rylan Secovich (Southwick, Mass.), senior first baseman Joshua Selander (Granby, Conn.), senior third baseman Ryan Flaherty (Duxbury, Mass.), senior pitcher Trey Yesu (Monson, Mass.) and senior pitcher Matt Kustigian (Charlton, Mass.).

Chosen to the second team were senior right fielder DJ Prampin (Worcester, Mass.), who had nine homers including a pair of walk-offs, and junior DH Benjamin Sepeck (Whitman, Mass.).

Secovich set the program record with 41 stolen bases, breaking the mark of 37 that was held since 2003 by Jason Arraiol. He also tied the BSU record with 52 singles, a record also held by Ed Grueter and Scott Emerson.

Flaherty, Secovich, Kustigian, Prampin abd Sepeck also garnered D3baseball.com All-Region Two honors, while Flaherty, Secovich and sophomore catcher Cam Beltramini (Hanson, Mass.) were named to the ABCA/Rawlings NCAA Division III All-Region Two Team.

MEN'S TENNIS

The Bears ran the table in the Little East, going 6-0 in the regular season and defeating Western Connecticut State and defending champion Rhode Island College in the tournament.

Senior captain Ryan Hebert (Taunton, Mass.) broke a 3-3 tie against RIC, winning No. 6 singles for the conference title.

BSU, which had a 10-match winning streak that included a percent March, lost to Skidmore, 4-0, in Brunswick, Maine, in the NCAAs. It was the program's second trip to the national tourney.

Freshman Will Horton (Lakeville, Mass.) became BSU's first Little East Player of the Year and was also the Rookie of the Year. At No. 1 singles, he was 10-4 and 5-1 in the Little East and was named the Most Valuable Player of the conference tourney.

Joining Horton on the All-Little East first team were senior captain Adam Beatrice (Rockland, Mass.), junior Tom Ayson (Plymouth, Mass.) and the doubles teams of Hebert and Horton plus Beatrice and junior Khiem Nguyen (Burlington, Vt.).

Making the second team were Nguyen in singles and the doubles team of Ayson and junior Anthony Lucas (Weymouth, Mass.).

David Purpura was picked as the Little East Coach of the Year for the second times in three years.

MEN'S OUTDOOR TRACK & FIELD

The Bears made it eight straight MASCAC championships, compiling 221 points to finish ahead of second-place and host Fitchburg State (179).

Winning events for the Bears were senior Kyle Ackroyd (Charlestown, R.I.), the 10,000; senior Ryker King (Wareham, Mass.), the 100 hurdles; junior Aydan Fournier (Assonet, Mass.), the 800; junior Matthew Mooney (Douglas, Mass.), the 200; sophomore Drew Alves (Taunton, Mass.), the pole vault; and the 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams.

Fournier also earned All-Division III New England honors by placing third in the 800.

Freshman Clayton Pastor Norales (New Bedford, Mass.) was both an All-Division III New England and All-New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association selection.

Pastor Norales was fourth in the long jump at the Division III meet and eighth at the NEICAAA Championships.

Also receiving All-NEICAAA honors were Ackroyd, third in the 10,000, and the 4x400 relay team, which was fourth, the same spot it finished at the Division III meet.

WOMEN'S OUTDOOR TRACK & FIELD

Inacio made it to the NCAAs with a time of 11.89 seconds to finish first at the MASCAC Championships. That broke the previous mark of 11.99 set a year earlier by Alison McDonough.

She also qualified for the NCAAs in the 200 during the indoor season and was part of the Bears' 4x100 relay team that earned All-America honors in the 2025 outdoor season.

Inacio also won the 200 at the MASCAC Championships when BSU finished third behind Westfield State and Worcester State.

She was third in the 200 at the Division III New England meet and seventh in the 100 at the NEICAAA Championships.

At the 2026 national chammpionship meet, Inacio earned second team All-America honors by finished 16th in the 100 (11.97).

Senior Naomi Cass (Westport, Mass.) finished her standout career with a fifth-place finish in the 10,000 at the NEICAAA meet while sophomore Jane Sitek Shaver (Burlington, Vt.) was first in the discus at the MASCAC meet.

WOMEN'S LACROSSE

BSU was 8-11, including 5-2 in the MASCAC, and had a late-season five-game winning streak.

The Bears defeated Salem State, 12-9, to open the conference tourney before losing to Westfield State, 9-8, on a goal in the final minute in the semifinal round.

Senior midfielder Meredith Sylvia (Dartmouth, Mass.) was named the MASCAC Offensive Player of the Year after getting 46 goals and 15 assists.

Sylvia made the first team while sophomores Sophia Fleurent (Mid., Fairhaven, Mass.) and Sara Skaff (GK, Lowell, Mass.) and freshman Hannah Bettencourt (Def., Peabody, Mass.) earned spots on the second team.

SOFTBALL

The Bears were 8-8 in the MASCAC, 18-22 overall. They opened the conference tourney with an 8-6 win at Framingham State before losing to Worcester State and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

BSU, which opened the season 6-4 in South Carolina, had one player on the All-MASCAC team.

Senior center fielder Angelina Lynch (Taunton, Mass.) made the first team after being chosen to the second team in two previous years.

Lynch hit .368 with 22 stolen bases in 24 attempts. She had 10 doubles, seven triples and three homers and had 43 hits in 40 games.

Junior pitcher Olivia Hargreaves (Weare, N.H.) went 5-9 with a 2.67 ERA and 90 strikeouts in 17 appearances in the circle.

EQUESTRIAN

The Bears, who opened the season in the fall semester, sent two riders to the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association Zone 1 competition, hosted by Mount Holyoke in April.

Junior Abigail Abbott (Wareham, Mass.) placed fourth in Open Flat while senior Emily Desmond (Braintree, Mass.) was eighth in Limit Over Fences.

Abbott and Desmond had qualified by placing first at the Zone 1 Region 4 Championships a week earlier in Plainville, Mass.