Baseball Sweeps Doubleheader over Muhlenberg

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- The Bridgewater State University baseball team improved to 3-0 as the Bears swept a doubleheader over Muhlenberg College on Sunday afternoon in Vero Beach, Florida.

Bridgewater won the first game 5-3 and completed the sweep with a 5-0 shutout in game two.

Junior right-hander Jim Balboni (Townsend, Mass.) picked up the win for the Bears in the opener.  Balboni (1-0) went four plus innings giving up three runs on just one hit with four walks and two strikeouts.

Sophomore Tyler Dennis (Stoughton, Mass.) continued to swing a hot bat as went 3-for-4 for the second straight game and drove in three runs.  Dennis knocked in two runs with a double in the fourth to give BSU a 4-1 lead.  He also added an RBI single in the fifth.

After giving up a single run in the first, Balboni breezed through the next three innings. However, he ran into trouble in the fifth as he walked the bases loaded with nobody out.  Senior lefty Bobby Fredrickson (Halifax, Mass.) came on to stem the tide but gave up a two-run double to the first batter he faced.  Fredrickson would avoid any further damage and also went on to pitch a scoreless sixth inning.

Junior closer Josh Ferreira (Fall River, Mass.) picked up his first save in a Bridgewater uniform as he worked a scoreless seventh with two strikeouts.  Ferreira loaded the bases on a walk and two hit batsmen but induced a game-ending fly out to get out of the jam.

In game two, sophomore righty Corey Batista (Fall River, Mass.) tossed a complete game shutout in his first appearance with the Bears.  Batista scattered five hits, walked two and struck out seven.

Sophomore Jose Polanco (Lawrence, Mass.) went 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI in game two while classmate Keane Costa (Fairhaven, Mass.) was also 2-for-3 with a run and an RBI.

Junior Dave Billotte (Norton, Mass.) gave Bridgewater a 1-0 lead with an RBI groundout in the bottom of the first inning after the Bears loaded the bases with one out.  Bridgewater made it 3-0 after three as Polanco singled in a run and Billotte added a run scoring double.  An RBI single by Costa and a bases loaded walk to senior Matt Greenberg (Norwell, Mass.) in the fifth capped off the scoring.

The Bears are back in action on Tuesday in Vero Beach when they take on Lebanon Valley College in a twinbill with game one getting underway at 10:00 AM.