Baseball Downs UMass Dartmouth, 6-1

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University baseball team posted a 6-1 victory over Southeastern Massachusetts rival UMass Dartmouth on Thursday afternoon at Alumni Park.

The host Bears improve to 10-15 on the season, while the Corsairs slip to 11-16 overall.

Ryan Feeney (East Bridgewater, Mass.) went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles, two runs scored and an RBI to highlight the BSU offense.

Thomas Protentis (Lakeville, Mass.) threw seven strong innings to record his second win of the season. Protentis (2-3) gave up just one run on six hits over seven plus innings of work. He walked two, hit three batters and fanned seven.

Samuel Devine (Bourne, Mass.) got the final six outs to secure the win. Devine, who struck out four in two innings of relief, came on with two on and nobody out in the eighth and worked out of the jam. 

Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the first, Scott O'Brien (East Bridgewater, Mass.) drew a one-out walk, moved to third on an opposite field base hit by Feeney and scored on Reed Pike's (Bellingham, Mass.) fielder's choice groundout.

The Bears took a 3-1 lead in the third as O'Brien started the rally with a lead-off single and advanced to third on Feeeney's two-bagger to right-center. O'Brien would scamper home and Feeney moved up to third when the right fielder bobbled the ball. After the next two hitters went down, Brandon Hoyle (Bridgewater, Mass.) lined an RBI single into centerfield to score Feeney from third.

A three-run fourth inning staked the Bears to a commanding 6-1 advantage. RBI doubles off the bats of Travis Ritchie (Taunton, Mass.) and Feeney followed by an RBI single by Pike accounted for all the scoring in the frame.

Drew CaraDonna (Pembroke, Mass.) was tagged with the loss on the mound for the Corsairs. CaraDonna (0-2) allowed six runs on ten hits over 3 2/3 innings of work. He walked one, hit a batter and fanned one.

The UMass bullpen kept the Bears off the board the rest of the way. Matt Russell (Townsend, Mass.), Benjamin Lodge (Blackstone, Mass.), David Tarr (Easton, Mass.) and Matt Cronin (Framingham, Mass.) combined to throw 4 1/3 innings of scoreless and hitless relief. The quartet gave up just a pair of walks and a hit batsmen.

DeVon King (Carver, Mass.) went 2-for-3 with a stole base and run scored to lead the UMD offense. King reached safely three times as he was also hit by a pitch.

The Bears host non-conference foe Johnson & Wales University tomorrow afternoon at 3:30, while the Corsairs take on Western Connecticut State University in a Little East Conference doubleheader on Saturday at noon.