By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University baseball team made history at this time last year.

The Bears became the first program to win three consecutive Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference tournaments since the start of the tourney in 2001.

Now, BSU is looking to add to that history.

The Bears enter the MASCAC tournament as the No. 1 seed after finishing first with a 17-4 record.

BSU has either won outright or shared four conference regular-season titles in a row.

The Bears play their first postseason game on Thursday at Alumni Park at approximately 3 p.m. against either fourth-seeded Worcester State University or fifth-seeded Salem State University.

Those teams meet in an elimination game at noon on Thursday in Bridgewater, and the second game will start 30 minutes after the conclusion of the opener.

Four teams will advance to the Friday games at Alumni Park and there will be three teams still alive on Saturday in the double-elimination portion of the tournament.

BSU (26-12) opened the season 0-4 and after splitting the next four games, went on a seven-game winning streak.

After a loss, the Bears put together seven straight wins again and are entering the tournament with nine wins in the last 11 games.

The offense has gotten better as the season went along to combine with a solid pitching staff, giving the Bears the top seed.

"We knew we were going to pitch," said coach Greg Zackrison. "The offense has really kind of stepped up. The offense has actually been a little better than I thought. It's producing a lot more.

"The strikeouts are down, which was hurting us earlier in the season. We're plugging along."

Senior second baseman Scott Emerson (Peabody, Mass.) became the program's all-time leader in hits and has 237, ahead of Steve Smith, who had 232 from 2005-08.

Emerson is hitting .400 with 64 hits this season and has stolen 19 bases while having a .470 on-base percentage from the leadoff spot.

Junior Ryan Flaherty (Duxbury, Mass.) has tied the program's single-season home run record with 15. The mark was set in 1986 by John Kiely.

Flaherty is hitting .307 with 55 RBI.

No. 2 hitting Kevin Lindsay (East Bridgewater, Mass.) is batting .373 with 48 hits and 33 RBI while senior catcher Philip Messina (Dunkirk, N.Y.) is at .333 with six homers and 26 RBI in his first year as a starter.

Brendan Flaven (Taunton, Mass.), a senior who transferred from Endicott College, has driven in 30 runs and is batting .331 with a pair of homers.

Junior Joshua Selander (Granby, Conn.) is also above .300 at .306 while senior DJ Prampin (Worcester, Mass.) has eight homers and 33 RBI with a .281 average.

The Bears have 40 home runs and a team average of .323.

"The addition of Flaven was really big," said Zackrison. "Messina is having a significantly much better year than anticipated. We have guys who really stepped up."

Pitching was viewed as a strong point entering the season and the Bears have shown depth.

Four pitchers have recorded four wins, including senior reliever Cameron Breault (Buzzards Bay, Mass.), who is 4-1 with a 2.16 earned run average and a WHIP of under 1.00; freshman Cameron Connolly (Peabody, Mass.), who is 4-1 with a 2.10 ERA; senior starter Shane Handrahan (Raynham, Mass.), who is 4-1; and junior starter Trey Yesu (Monson, Mass.), who is 4-3 with a team-best 45 strikeouts.

Sophomore Jaden Arruda (Seekonk, Mass.) is 3-0 with a 3.60 ERA in six games with five starts.

"We always knew we were going to be able to pitch," said Zackrison. "The bullpen is as good as any bullpen I've had."

Third-seeded Westfield State (26-11) faces sixth-seeded Framingham State (13-26) on Thursday afternoon in Buzzards Bay, Mass., with the winner playing later in the day against second-seeded Mass. Maritime Academy (22-17).

BSU went a combined 9-0 in the last three MASCAC tournaments. Zackrison sees a strong field in this year's tourney.

"I would say this year heading into the tournament, even though we're the No. 1 seed, the other seeds are a lot closer to us," he said. "Teams are older. Mass. Maritime has almost 20 seniors plus some fifth-years who came back. Westfield has 15 seniors and have some graduate students, too.

"This one seems a little bit more up in the air than most."