Baseball Edged by Wheaton, 3-2

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. – The Wheaton College baseball team edged host Bridgewater State University, 3-2, on Thursday afternoon at cold and overcast Alumni Park.

The Lyons, who received votes in the latest ABCA Division III Poll, improve to 8-3 with the win, while the Bears fall to 6-7.

Brady Furdon (Natick, Mass.) went the first five innings to pick up the win for the Lyons. Furdon (2-1) allowed two unearned runs on two hits and a walk while striking out two.

Four Wheaton relievers combined to throw four scoreless innings to close out the game with Eric Dumas (Brookline, Mass.) picking up his fifth save of the season. Dumas worked around a leadoff single in the ninth and stranded the tying run on third.

Wheaton took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning. Jimmy Smith (Worcester, Mass.) led off the frame with a base hit, stole second and scored on an RBI single by Joshua LaJoie (Somers, Conn.). Matt Lavanchy (Walpole, Mass.) followed with a base hit to put two runners on. After back-to-back outs, Zachary Goodwin-Boyd (Florence, Mass.)  was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Tyler Walsh (Cumberland, R.I.) then reached on a controversial hit by pitch to force in LaJoie with the Lyons' second run.

The Bears came right back with a pair of runs in the home half of the third. Anthony Licciardello (Haverhill, Mass.) walked to lead off the inning and was safe at second on a throwing error on Scott O'Brien's (East Bridgewater, Mass.) bunt attempt. After the runners moved up on a sacrifice bunt, Ryan Feeney (East Bridgewater, Mass.) plated Licciardello with an RBI groundout to cut the deficit to 2-1. Travis Ritchie (Taunton, Mass.) then ripped a base hit up the middle to score O'Brien with the tying run.

The Lyons pushed across the winning run in the top of the fourth. With one out, Smith started the rally with a bunt single and moved to second on a wild pitch. After LaJoie was hit by a pitch and Lavanchy reached on an error to load the bases, Justin Silvestro (Waltham, Mass.) walked to force in Smith with the go-ahead run.

Thomas Protentis (Lakeville, Mass.) gave up three runs (two earned) on six hits over four-plus innings of work in the loss for the Bears. Protentis walked five, hit three batters and fanned four.

Shane Surette (Haverhill, Mass.) and David Holmes (North Easton, Mass.) combined to throw five scoreless innings of relief for the Bears. Surette gave up a hit and walk with one strikeout in two innings of work, while Holmes retired nine of the ten batters he faced with three strikeouts.

Smith was the only batsmen to finish with multiple hits in the game as we went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.

Wheaton banged out eight hits on the afternoon and eight batters reached by virtue of a walk or hit by pitch. The Lyons, however, stranded 13 runners on base.

Bridgewater finished with five hits and recorded five sacrifice bunts. Ritchie went 1-of-3 with an RBI, while Randy Frazier (Wareham, Mass.) was also 1-for-3. Feeney finished 1-for-4 as he extended his season-long hitting streak to 13 games with an infield single in the sixth.

The Bears are off until next Tuesday afternoon (Mar. 29) when they travel to Brandeis University for a 3:30 game with the Judges. The Lyons entertain Suffolk University tomorrow afternoon at 3:30.