By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University baseball team appeared to be on the verge of a late-game rally against one of the nation's best teams.

Trailing by three runs entering the top of the eighth inning, the Bears scored one run and had the bases loaded with only out against Endicott College.

But instead of doing further damage in the next-to-last inning, a double play on a line drive quickly ended the frame and BSU's bid to knock off a team ranked No. 3 and No. 4 in the national Division III polls.

The Gulls held off the Bears, 5-2, to start the NCAA Bridgewater Regional at Alumni Park Friday in the first game of the double-elimination tournament.

Fourth-seeded BSU (30-14) will play an elimination game on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. against either second-seeded Concordia University of Austin, Texas, or third-seeded Oswego State of New York.

Endicott (39-4 with 31 wins in the last 32 games) will play a winner's bracket game at noon, and an elimination game will follow at 3:30 p.m.

BSU, making a fourth straight appearance in the NCAAs, left 10 runners on and also loaded the bases in the first and second innings.

But they managed only one run in the first two innings against Conference of New Englan Pitcher of the Year Charlie Hale (Brookline, N.H.).

Hale gave the Bears little to work with after those two innings and improved to 12-1, allowing two runs and four hits while striking out seven and walking just one in seven innings.

"We had some chances," said BSU coach Greg Zackrison. "We just really didn't take advantage of much. We didn't really hit many balls hard.

"Their pitcher had a really good slider that we had a tough time figuring out."

Trailing, 4-1, in the top of the eighth, BSU got a run when senior Brendan Flaven (Taunton, Mass.) singled to right-center, ending Hale's day.

Junior Brady Stuart (Hudson, Mass.) walked the first batter he faced, junior Ryan Flaherty (Duxbury, Mass.), who was forced at second on a grounder by senior Philip Messina (Dunkirk, N.Y.).

Freshman Jamie Luna (Warwick, R.I.) bunted for a single, scoring Flaven and he went to second on an error with Messina moving to third.

After junior Joshua Selander (Granby, Conn.) was hit by a pitch, sophomore Jake Harmony (Hartford, Conn.) took over in relief.

BSU junior Riley Thornell (Wareham, Mass.) then hit a liner that Endicott junior second baseman AJ Hamm (Shrewsbury, Mass.) moved to his left and grabbed. Hamm then fired to junior shortstop TJ Liponis () to complete the double play and end the inning.

"Riley did a good job of hitting the ball hard and their guy did a great job of making the play and doubling him up," said Zackrison.

"It's funny, four years in this tournament, there always seems to be a play that we make or the other team makes that kind of puts the nail in the coffin one way or another.

"That's just another one of those where with two good teams, there's going to be big plays that need to be made and they made it.''

BSU took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first as senior Scott Emerson (Peabody, Mass.) was hit by a pitch, stole second with two outs and went to third on a throwing error. He scored on a single by Messina.

Endicott tied it in the bottom of the inning on a sacrifice fly by senior Joey Frammartino (North Reading, Mass.), scoring senior Zach Stephenson (Mansfield, Mass.), who had doubled.

The Gulls went up, 2-1, in the second on an RBI single by senior Robbie Wladkowski (Norwood, Mass.), bringing in graduate student John Mulready (Peabody, Mass.), who had doubled.

Endicott added an unearned run in the fourth with MacDougal delivering an RBI single after Liponis singled and went to second on a throwing error.

Wladkowski brought in the fourth run with a sacrifice fly in the fifth.

Hale retired 13 in a row after the second inning until Thornell reached on an error to start the seventh.

"He was getting ahead and then the slider, the guys were saying it's just moving all over the place," said Zackrison, whose team was limited to five singles by four pitchers.

"We tried to make an adjustment getting on the dish with the righties and they were still kind of struggling.

"He's a good arm. He slings it low three-quarter and the slider was tough to pick up. He's 12-1, that's a pretty good arm."

Endicott scored its final run in the eighth as Frammartino doubled after a double by MacDougall.

Bears' junior starter Trey Yesu (Monson, Mass.) took the loss, falling to 5-4. He allowed four runs and nine hits.

Senior Cameron Breault (Buzzards Bay, Mass.) gave up a hit in 2 1/3 innings of relief and junior CJ Hess (Providence, R.I.) worked an inning.

Endicott began the day ranked first nationally in Division III in scoring, averaging 11.6 runs per game, but the Gulls were limited by the Bears and stranded 12 in eight innings.

"Just another day in the office for me,'' said Breault. "I know coach Zackrison and coach (Ian) Searles rely on me. I want the ball all the time and I just figured it's another day against another team."

Said Zackrison, "We pitched really well. Trey had a lot of traffic and worked out of it. Cam came in and did a really good job, too, getting out of any jams.

"We've always known we've had a lot of pitching and good depth of arms. It was just not getting the hit when we needed it offensively.''

The Bears have an early wake-up call Saturday for the 8:30 a.m. game, and they need two wins to make it to Sunday's championship round.

Freshman Chase Beach (Orleans, Mass.) will start after winning the MASCAC title game last Sunday.

"We always have each other's back,'' said Breault of rallying from a 0-1 start in the regional. "We know when we're in a dogfight and have our backs against the wall, we're not a team to count out by any means.

We have the depth on the bench and in the bullpen and nobody else can match up to that."

Said Zackrison, "The biggest factor for us is (the game) being at 8:30 in the morning. We're going to have some arms. The biggest factor will be which team can get awake quicker because we're going to compete."