WESTFIELD, Mass. – Junior right fielder
Scott McIntyre (Bristol, CT-DH) was 2-for-4 with a
double and four RBIs to lead Westfield State to an 8-3 victory over
Bridgewater State in an opening round game of the Massachusetts
State College Athletics Conference (MASCAC) Tournament.
Westfield, 21-13-1 overall, will play Worcester State in the
winners’ bracket game of the double-elimination tournament.
Worcester State edged Salem State, 7-6, in 10 innings on
Thursday.
The remaining games of the double elimination tournament will be
hosted by Westfield State. In Saturday’s first of three
games, Bridgewater (22-14) plays Salem State (25-14) at 10:00 a.m.
Westfield hosts Worcester State (21-16) at 1:00 p.m.
Bridgewater took a short-lived 1-0 first-inning lead on singles by
Mark Claffey (Bellingham, MA-3B) and Steve
Smith (East Taunton, MA-LF) and a sacrifice fly by
Kelly LaDow (East Falmouth, MA-C). Westfield
responded with three runs in the home half of the first as
Bridgewater pitcher Jeff Sarahs (Whitman, MA) got
off to a shaky start.
Brad King (Perth, Ontario) led off with a single
and Kevin Lyons (Braintree, MA) and Jeff
Fields (Pittsfield, MA) walked to load the bases. McIntyre
then ripped a two-run single to left-center field. Mike
Trachtenberg (Newton, MA) blooped an RBI single to left
field for a 3-1 Owl lead.
Westfield tacked on another run in the third when Jeff Fields
tripled to left-center and scored on McIntyre’s
groundout.
Both teams scored a run in both the sixth and seventh innings. The
Bears made it 5-3 on Smith’s solo home run in the seventh.
McIntyre gave the Owls a 6-3 lead when he smashed an RBI double off
the left field fence.
The Owls tallied twice in the eighth on Justin
Parr’s (North Attleboro, MA) RBI groundout and a
wild pitch to close out the scoring.
Westfield out-hit Bridgewater, 11-9. King - the Owls’ speedy
leadoff hitter - was 2 for 5 with two runs scored. Fields was 2 for
2 with three runs scored and Ben Wagner - hitting in the No. 9 spot
- was 2 for 3 with an RBI.
Steve Lambert (Milton, MA-RF), Brian
Medeiros (Brockton, MA) and Smith finished with two hits
apiece for the Bears.
Winning pitcher Steve Sullivan (Quincy, MA)
hurled the first six innings, allowing two runs, eight hits and two
walks while striking out two.
Release courtesy of Westfield State Sports Information