Baseball Falls to Wheaton, 15-5

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The visiting Wheaton College baseball team posted a 15-5 non-conference victory over Bridgewater State University on Thursday afternoon at Alumni Park.

The visiting Lyons improve to 22-10 on the season with the win, while the Bears slip to 7-18 overall.

Wheaton plated three unearned runs in the top of the first inning and added a pair of tallies on RBI singles from Justin Silvestro and Mike Beneduce in the second to take an early 5-0 lead.

The Lyons took advantage of another BSU error in the top of the fifth to tack on four more unearned runs and extend the lead to 9-0. The big hit in the frame was a two-run triple off the bat of Silvestro.

The Bears got on the board in the bottom of the fifth as they loaded the bases with one out on a walk to Billy Mitchell and back-to-back singles by Colin Ryan and Jacob Souza. Travis Ritchie reached on a fielder's choice ground out to plate Mitchell and Scott O'Brien followed with an RBI single scoring Ryan to cut the deficit to 9-2.

Wheaton answered with a three spot in the top of the sixth to open up a 12-2 advantage. A Joseph Santigate sacrifice fly and RBI singles from Justin Peluso and Jimmy Smith accounted for the scoring.

The two teams exchanged runs in the seventh. Chris Ruocco singled to lead off the top of the inning for the Lyons and later scored on a base hit by Thomas Landry. In the home half of the frame, Ritchie and O'Brien smacked back-to-back doubles to make it a 13-3 game.

Ruocco and Silvestro each singled to open the top of the eighth and moved up a base on a ground out. Following an out, Landry singled home Ruocco and Matthew Cook followed with an RBI base hit plating Silvesto with the Lyons' 15th run of the game.

The Bears rounded out the scoring in the bottom of the eighth. Anthony Licciardello knocked in Sean Brooks with an RBI triple and later came around to score when Ryan reached on an infield error.

Silvesto (3-for-7), Beneduce (3-for-3) and Peluso (3-for-3) finished with three hits apiece to highlight the Lyons' 23-hit attack. Fourteen different batters recorded at least one hit in the contest for the visitors.

Ritchie (2-for-5), O'Brien (2-for-5) and Licciardello (2-for-4) each had two hits for the Bears.

Joe Bongiovanni got the start on the mound for Wheaton and tossed four scoreless innings while giving up just three hits. Jack Fant (1-2) picked up the win in relief as he gave up three runs on five hits over 3 1/3 innings.

Shane Surette (0-5) surrendered 11 runs on 12 hits and five walks in the setback for the Bears. Only four of the 11 runs, however, were earned.

In upcoming action, the Bears entertain non-conference foe Western New England University on Friday afternoon at 3:30. The Lyons open NEWMAC Tournament play on Saturday afternoon at WPI with game one of the best-of-three series getting underway at noon.