Baseball Falls to Western New England, 10-8

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. – The Bridgewater State University baseball team dropped a 10-8 decision to non-conference foe Western New England College on Friday afternoon at Alumni Park.

Western New England improves to 32-8 on the season with the win, while Bridgewater slips to 16-14 overall.

The visiting Golden Bears opened the scoring in the first inning when Ryan Dudzinski (Bristol, Conn.) singled through the left side, stole second and scored on Mike Rubino's (Northford, Conn.) RBI singled.  Rubino advanced to third on Tony Trubia's (Tolland, Conn.) double and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jason Leclerc (Chicopee, Mass.)

Bridgewater answered with two runs of their own in the home half of the first as Tyler Dennis (Stoughton, Mass.) singled with one out.  Ian Williams (Taunton, Mass.) and Keane Costa (Fairhaven, Mass.) followed with back-to-back base hits to load the bases.  Dave Billotte (Norton, Mass.) then tied the score at 2-2 on a two-run double.

The host Bears took the lead in the second as John Garabedian (Mansfield, Mass.) belted his first home run of the season, a solo blast to left.  Later in the frame, Williams drove a two-run homer over the left-center field fence, his first of the year, to put Bridgewater up 5-2.

WNEC answered with two runs in the third as Rubino singled to lead off the frame. After an out, back-to-back walks to Leclerc and Matt Anthonis (Guilford, Conn.) loaded the bases.  One out later, Kyle McKelvey (Schenectady, N.Y.) singled to center to plate two runs and cut the deficit to 5-4.

Bridgewater notched a single run in the bottom half of the inning on a sacrifice fly by Corey Batista (Fall River, Mass.) to make the score 6-4 in favor of the Bears.

WNEC would take the lead for good with four runs in the top of the fourth.  Dudzinski singled to lead off the frame and stole second.  After back-to-back outs, Trubia knocked in Dudzinski with an RBI single.  Successive wild pitches sent Trubia to third and Leclerc followed with a walk.  Three straight RBI singles by Anthonis, Mike Taylor (Andover, Mass.) and McKelvey put the Golden Bears on top, 8-6.

WNEC would score two key insurance runs in the sixth on a two-run single by Andrew Fatse (Hampden, Mass.).

Trailing 10-6, Bridgewater rallied in the ninth as Josh Ferreira (Fall River, Mass.) led off the frame with a home run.  One out later, consecutive singles by Williams, Costa and Billotte loaded the bases.  Matt Rogers (Portsmouth, R.I.) was called in to put out the fire for the Golden Bears.  He struck out the first batter he faced but also allowed a wild pitch to plate Williams and put the other two runners in scoring position.  With the tying run at second, Rogers induced a harmless pop out to end the game.

Zach Cloft (Glastonbury, Conn.) earned the win on the mound for Western New England in relief of starter Mark DiTommaso (Hebron, Conn.).  Cloft worked four innings and gave up just one run on one hit with a walk and five strikeouts.  Rogers recorded his first save of the season.

Dudzinski, Rubino, Trubia, Taylor, McKelvey, Fatse and Casey Dadio (Branford, Conn.) all had two hits apiece to lead the Golden Bears' 15-hit attack.  McKelvey drove in three runs, while Leclerc and Anthonis each scored three runs.

Williams paced the Bears 11-hit effort as he finished 3for-5 with three runs and two RBI.  Billotte went 2-for-4, while Costa added a pair of hits in five at bats.  

Matt Melia (East Sandwich, Mass.) was saddled with the loss as Bridgewater used six different pitchers in the game.  BSU hurlers combined to issue nine walks in the contest.

WNEC left 13 runners on base, while Bridgewater stranded eight. Fourteen of the Golden Bears' 15 hits were singles and the visitors also had two runners thrown out at the plate by the Bears' right fielder, Ferreira.

Bridgewater returns to the diamond on Saturday afternoon when the Bears travel to Salem State University for a key MASCAC doubleheader with the Vikings.  The twinbill is slated to get underway at noon.