Baseball Drops 8-3 Decision to Westfield

Box Score

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