Baseball Advances to New England Regional Championship Round

HARWICH, Mass. -- The eighth-seeded Bridgewater State University baseball team advanced to the championship round of the 2011 NCAA Division III New England Regional as the Bears downed Wheaton College, 6-3, in the loser's bracket final on Saturday at Whitehouse Field.

Advancing to the championship round for the first time since 2004 and sixth time overall Bridgewater State (26-16) will face second seed Western New England College tomorrow at noon. The Bears need to beat WNEC twice on Sunday to win the regional and move on to the Division III College World Series.

The Lyons, who entered the game ranked 19th nationally by D3baseball.com and first in the region according to the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association (NEIBA), finish the year at 32-12. 

Senior right-hander Jeff Puopolo (Brockton, MA) yielded two earned runs with 10 strikeouts and three walks on 10 hits in eight-plus innings.  Junior Jim Balboni (Townsend, MA) picked up the save.

Junior Joshua Ferreira (Fall River, MA) went 3-for-5 with two RBI for Bridgewater State, while sophomore David Pierce (East Bridgewater, MA) was 2-for-3.  Sophomore Tyler Dennis (Stoughton, MA) had two hits, junior Corey Batista (Fall River, MA) drove in two runs.

Wheaton junior Dan Haugh (Andover, MA) was 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI while smacking his school-record 22nd double, while seniors Sean Munley (Ewing, NJ) and Tad Skelley (Wolfeboro, NH) each went 2-for-4.

Classmate Eric Laliberte (Nashua, NH) had a pair of hits, while sophomore Eric Jensen (Gorham, NH) had two runs and two walks.  Classmate Justin Dickinson (Stratford, CT) gave up four earned runs on seven hits with two strikeouts and a pair of walks in four innings.

Three infield singles by the Bears loaded the bags in the first, but Dickinson settled in to retire his next three batters, allowing just the one run on a sacrifice fly to right.  Wheaton tied things up in the top of the second, using a pair of singles, a failed pickoff and a wild pitch to even the score, as Munley scored after leading off the frame with a base knock through the left side.

The Lyons rallied with two down in the third, with Jensen drawing a walk, stealing second and scoring on Haugh's RBI single to center.  In the bottom of the fourth, Bridgewater State retook its lead with three  runs on three hits, as Ferreira delivered the big blow with a two-run double to deep right before a sac fly made the score 4-2.  Wheaton narrowed its gap to one the following frame, with Jensen drawing a two-out walk before being brought around on Haugh's double to left field.

Battista's two-run, two-out homer in the bottom of the seventh put the Bears in front by a 6-3 count.  The Lyons threatened in the eighth but came away empty, jamming the bags with a walk and back-to-back singles, but Puopolo caught his next two batters swinging on strikes to thwart the threat.

Wheaton again loaded the bases in the ninth with nobody out.  A groundout to second began a double play, as runner interference not only erased Jensen going to first but also forced the runners heading to third and home back a base, negating a Lyon run.   Balboni then fanned his final batter to complete the game.

Bridgewater also advanced to regional championship rounds in 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2004. The Bears won the New England Regional in 1996 and finished third at the College World Series.  The following season (1997), Bridgewater won the Mid-Atlantic Regional and placed seventh at the World Series.