Baseball Ends Season With 1-0 MASCAC Tournament Setback

WESTFIELD, Mass. -- The two starters staged a stellar pitching duel, but in the end relief pitching decided the outcome as Westfield State's Tyler Beach (Quincy, Mass.) scored on a two-out wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the host Owls a 1-0 win over Bridgewater State in the first round of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Baseball Tournament at Bud and Jim Hagan Field on Thursday afternoon.

Fourth-seeded Westfield State improves to 19-18 on the season, and advances to play at #1 seed Salem State tomorrow afternoon as the tournament begins its double-elimination final four format. Fifth-seeded Bridgewater State's season ends at 16-19.

Westfield starting pitcher John Gegetskas (Windsor, Conn.), the league's rookie of the year, tossed seven scoreless innings, while Bridgewater's Shane Surette (Haverhill, Mass.) dueled him pitch-for-pitch until the decisive ninth inning.

Surette (5-3) worked 8.1 innings, scattering seven hits and striking out six.

In the bottom of the ninth, Beach led off with solid single through the right side, and was sacrificed to second by Connor Sheridan (South Hadley, Mass.).  After Thomas Protentis(Lakeville, Mass.) relieved Surette, Beach took third when Evan Moorhouse (Westfield, Mass.) hit a high chop back to the mound for the second out of the frame.

With two out, Beach scored the game-winning run on a two-strike wild pitch that went to the screen to give the Owls the walk-off win.

Gegetskas gave up just four hits and fanned three in seven scoreless innings. Tyler Tongue (Hampden, Mass.) tossed a 1-2-3 eighth with two strikeouts, and Pete Liimatainen picked up the win in relief as the he pitched a scoreless ninth. Liimatainen (1-3) came in to a scoreless tie in the top of the ninth and worked around back-to-back two-out hits with some help from Moorhouse, who picked a runner off first base to end the inning.

Westfield was led by a pair of hits from Tyler Adams (Barnstable, Mass.) including a double.  The Owls got two hits and two walks from the DH slot, a hit and a walk each for Stephen Brown (Harwich, Mass.) and Anthony Crowley (Bellingham, Mass.).

Brandon Hoyle (Bridgewater, Mass.) went 3-for-4 with a double to pace the BSU offense, while Keaghan Austin-MacInnis (Lakeville, Mass.) was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.

The Bears' one to four hitters in the lineup were a combined 0-for-16 on the afternoon. Bridgewater left runners in scoring position in the second, fifth, seventh and ninth innings.