Baseball Sweeps Doubleheader with Northwestern

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- The Bridgewater State University baseball team swept the University of Northwestern in a doubleheader on Friday in Vero Beach, Florida.

The Bears posted a 10-9 victory in nine innings in the opener and completed the sweep with a 4-2 triumph in game two. Bridgewater wrapped up the trip with an overall record of 5-3.

In game one, Bridgewater led 9-5 after six innings of play.

Travis Ritchie belted his first home run in a BSU uniform in a two-run first inning.

RBI singles by Keaghan Austin-MacInnis, Brandon Hoyle and Anthony Licciardello, and a two-run base knock off the bat of Randy Frazier, highlighted a five-run, fifth inning.

The Bears tacked on two more runs in the sixth on a two-run triple by Reed Pike.

Northwestern rallied for four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the game at 9-9. The Eagles also had the winning run cut down at the plate as the base runner tried to score from third on a wild pitch.

After a scoreless eighth inning, Davide Tamarez reached on a pinch hit single to lead off the ninth and came around to score the game-winning run one out later on Frazier's RBI triple.

Connor Birch came on to close out the game in the ninth and worked around a hit, walk and a hit batsmen to record his first save. Birch induced a harmless fly-out with the bases loaded to end the game.

Austin-MacInnis reached safely in all five plate appearances to highlight the BSU offense in game one. He went 3-for-3 with a double, two walks, three runs and an RBI.

Pike and Frazier each finished 3-for-5 at the dish with a triple and three RBI. Ryan Feeney went 2-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored, while Hoyle had two hits in four at bats with a run and an RBI.

Thomas Protentis picked up his first win for the Bears as he hurled 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief with a pair of strikeouts. Protentis walked two and gave up one hit.

In game two, Shane Surette went the distance on the mound to record his second win of the season. Surette (2-0) gave up two runs on five hits with no walks and five strikeouts.

Bridgewater opened the scoring with a three-run first inning. Back-to-back singles by Feeney and Ritchie put runners on first and third. Feeney came around to score on an RBI ground out and Pike followed with a base hit. After an out, Scott O'Brien reached on an error to give the Bears the 2-0 lead. Pike scored the final run of the inning on Frazier's RBI single.

Feeney led off the second with a double, moved to third on a fly out and scored on Pike's RBI single to give Bridgewater the 4-0 advantage.

Northwestern cut the deficit in half with a two-run fourth inning. Brett Reinhart knocked in Ryan Sutterer with an RBI triple and Bradley Spencer followed with a run-scoring single.

That would be as close as the Eagles would get as Surette retired nine of the final 11 batters he faced to close out the game.

Pike went 4-for-4 to highlight the BSU offense in game two, while finished 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles.