BRIDGEWATER, Mass. – The visiting Curry College baseball team posted a 6-3 victory over Bridgewater State University on Thursday afternoon at Alumni Park.
The Colonels improve to 10-15 on the season while the Bears fall to 18-10. Bridgewater is now 12-7-1 versus Curry since 1978. The two teams met earlier this season with the Bears posting a 6-1 road victory over the Colonels.
Freshman righthander Tommy Marshall (Hanson, Mass.) hurled eight strong innings for the Colonels to pick up his second win of the season. Marshall (2-1) gave up three runs on seven hits with one walk and a season-high ten strikeouts. Sophomore lefthander Ryan Kirkpatrick (Cumberland, R.I.) pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his second save of the 2022 campaign.
Sophomore right fielder Jay Wladkowski (Norwood, Mass,) continued to swing a hot bat for Bridgewater State as he went 3-for-4 with three doubles, a run and two RBI. Wladkowski is batting .526 (10-19) over the last five games with a home run and five doubles.
Bridgewater got on the board with a run in the bottom of the first inning. Wladkowski doubled down the left field line with two outs and senior designated hitter Jonathan O'Donnell (Hull, Mass.) followed with an RBI bloop single to right-center.
Curry pushed across a pair of runs in the top of the third. Back-to-back base hits by sophomore shortstop Ryan Goonan (Raynham, Mass.) and freshman centerfielder David DiCicco (Winthrop, Mass.) followed by a double steal put runners on second and third with nobody out. Graduate third baseman Jared Keller (Oxford, Conn.) then lined a two-run single into left-center to put the Colonels on top, 2-1.
The visitors tacked on four more runs in the fourth on an RBI ground out and three consecutive RBI doubles by DiCicco, Keller and graduate catcher Garrett Fosher (Exeter, N.H.).
Wladkowski's two-run double in the bottom of the eight cut the BSU deficit to 6-3. O'Donnell reached on an error to bring the tying run to the plate with just one out, but Marshall got the next two batters including a strikeout to end the threat.
Kirkpatrick came on and worked around a two-out single in the ninth to notch the save.
Keller and DiCicco paced the Curry offense with two hits apiece. Keller went 2-for-4 with a double, a run and three RBI, while DiCicco was 2-for-3 at the plate with a double, a stolen base, two runs and an RBI.
Freshman second baseman Scott Emerson (Peabody, Mass.) also finished with multiple hits for Bridgewater State as he singled twice in five at bats and scored a run. Sophomore shortstop Kevin Lindsay (East Bridgewater, Mass.) singled and walked in four plate appearances.
Sophomore righthander Ethan Grade (South Windsor, Conn.) pitched well in relief of senior starter Patrick Cashin (Franklin, Mass.). Grade tossed four scoreless and hitless innings with a pair of walks and a strikeout. He also hit a batter. Cashin (1-3) allowed six runs on nine hits over five innings with no walks and five strikeouts.
In upcoming action, the Bears entertain Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference foe Fitchburg State University tomorrow afternoon at three o'clock. The Colonels travel to Endicott College on Saturday for a noontime Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) doubleheaders with the Gulls.