Bridgewater State Handed First Loss in NCAA Tournament

By Jim Fenton, The Enterprise (Brockton)

HARWICH, Mass. -- For two days, everything fell neatly into place for the Bridgewater State University baseball team at the NCAA Div. 3 New England Regional.

The eighth-seeded Bears combined a pair of complete-game pitching performances with timely hitting to advance past Tufts University and Rhode Island College earlier this week.

On the third day of the tournament, though, BSU hit a speed bump in its pursuit of a regional championship.

The Bears were no match for the 18th-ranked team in the nation, second-seeded Western New England, which has won 41 of 50 games.

BSU was handed its first loss of the regional on Friday afternoon, falling to the Golden Bears from Springfield, 11-4, at Whitehouse Field.

The setback means the Bears (25-16) must now win three games – including two over Western New England – in 27 hours this weekend to claim the title.

They play an elimination game at 4 p.m. today against the winner of the Wheaton College-St. Joseph’s of Maine game that was halted Friday night because of fog with the Lyons leading, 2-0, in the seventh inning. That game resumes at noon today.

If BSU wins this afternoon, it would have to defeat Western New England twice on Sunday for the regional crown.

“We’ve gone from having to win one to having to win three games now,” said BSU coach Rick Smith. “We have the pitching to do it. Get a few breaks, let these guys (Wheaton and St. Joseph’s) beat each other up (Friday night), and tomorrow we’ll go and do the best we can. 

“I think we are capable of doing it. I think if we hit, we can do it, and we still have strong pitching. We get the hits, we’ll be fine.”

Western New England, which has gone 18-1 in its past 19 games, looms large in the regional after opening with three victories to get into the championship round.

The Golden Bears had 17 hits and scored at least two runs in four innings to send BSU into the losers’ bracket. The Bears fell behind, 6-1, in the sixth inning and were unable to generate any offense until a three-run eighth inning.

Three Western New England players had at least three hits, and No. 9 batter Kyle McKelvey went 4-for-4.

“That’s the best team we’ve faced all year,” said Smith. “We played them in the regular season and they were a very good team then and they continue to play very well.

“They get timely hits. The thing I like about them the most is they don’t panic. They stayed focused all the way straight through. They’ve got 41 wins. They’re a pretty good team. There’s no embarrassment losing to a team like that. They’re a very good team and they went out and played just like they are, No. 2 in New England.”

BSU starter Joshua Ferreira had five strikeouts in the first two innings when only one runner reached, but Western New England reached him for three runs in the third.

“Ferreira starts the game off as if he owns them,’’ said Smith, “and they just wait and wait and wait and then base hit, base hit, base hit. They were patient.

“I think what happened to him was instead of going right at them, he tried to finesse his way. They stopped swinging as if they were trying to hit home runs and just put the bat on the ball. He went back to his fastball, but they weren’t free swinging. They were just standing there swinging.’’

Tim Clark gave the Golden Bears a 2-0 lead with a double after Ferreira walked McKelvey and hit Matt Anthonis, and a sacrifice fly brought in Clark. Western New England made it 4-0 in the fifth on a two-out RBI single by Tony Trubia.

BSU got on the board against winner Evan Michaud (8-0) in the fifth on a RBI single by sophomore David Pierce of East Bridgewater, who was 3-for-5.

Western New England scored twice in the sixth on a two-run single by Ryan Dudzinski and added three in the seventh to chase Ferreira. The lead expanded to 11-1 in the eighth inning before BSU scored three times in the bottom of the frame with a pinch-hit double by Matt Greenberg being the key hit.

Smith will use either senior Jeff Puopolo of Brockton or junior Jim Balboni in the elimination game. The Bears, whose lineup is loaded with underclassmen, will be trying to keep their season going.

“I think this year, to have gotten has far as we’ve gotten with the inexperience we have, I think we’ve done very, very well,” said Smith. “I’m very proud of them. We’re at a level of overachieving at this point in time. We can’t be really disappointed. This is great experience for next year as well as however far we can take this.”