By Jim Fenton
BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University baseball team is riding a five-game winning streak after a doubleheader sweep Tuesday.
The Bears took a pair of games from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, 8-7 and 6-2, at the Commodore William R. Hendy Field.
BSU is now 10-5 overall and 5-1 in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference while the Buccaneers fell to 10-8 and 2-4 and have dropped three in a row.
The Bears' lone conference loss was to Mass. Maritime, 7-3, on March 24.
BSU hit four home runs in the opener and one more in the second game.
Senior Ryan Flaherty (Duxbury, Mass.) hit a pair of homers in game one and now has 26 in his BSU career. Flahery ranks third on the all-time list behind John Kiely (29 from 1986-87) and Jay Doherty (27 from 1989-92).
Game One: Bridgewater State 8, Mass. Maritime 7
The Bears built an early 6-0 lead before the Buccaneers rallied for five runs in the bottom of the third.
BSU then went up, 8-5, and after allowing two runs in the fifth, kept Mass. Maritime off the scoreboard in the final two innings.
Flaherty went 2-for-3 with five RBI while seniors DJ Prampin (Worcester, Mass.) and Joshua Selander (Granby, Conn.) also homered.
Junior Benjamin Sepeck (Whitman, Mass.) and freshman Nick Berube (Swampscott, Mass.) were 2-for-4 for BSU, which was outhit, 13-9, in the win.
Senior Matt Kustigian (Charlton, Mass.) improved to 3-0 with three innings of relief work. The second of three BSU pitchers, he allowed two runs and six hits.
Sophomore Chase Beach (East Orleans, Mass.) picked up his third save, retiring the final four batters and striking out two in 1 1/3 innings.
BSU took a 3-0 lead in the first as Flaherty hit a two-run homer to right-center after sophomore Cam Beltramini (Hanson, Mass.) had singled. Selander followed with a homer to center.
In the second, Prampin was hit by a pitch, advanced on a wild pitch and passed ball and scored on a single through the left side by Berube.
A wild pitch and groundout moved Berube to third, and he scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Flaherty.
BSU held a six-run lead after Prampin's two-out homer to left in the third.
Mass. Maritime got back in the game in the bottom of the inning.
Freshman Nate Kaczynski (West Lake Village, Calif.) hit a two-run homer to center and junior Eduardo Correia (Taunton, Mass.), junior Costa Beechin (Malden, Mass.) and sophomore Jason Bouffard (Swampscott, Mass.) had RBI singles.
Flaherty hit his second home in the fourth after Beltramini was hit by a pitch for an 8-5 lead.
Beechin had an RBI single and Bouffard added a run-scoring double for the Buccaneers in the fifth.
Game Two: Bridgewater State 6, Mass. Maritime 2
The Bears were in front, 3-2, before scoring three times in the seventh to seal the second win.
Junior Patrick Chapin (Framingham, Mass.) struck out eight in four innings, allowing two runs and three hits. He is now 3-1.
Senior CJ Hess (Providence, R.I.) worked the final three innings, striking out six and giving up one hit for his first save.
BSU opened a 1-0 lead in the first when Beltramini homered to center. The Buccaneers tied it in the bottom of the inning when graduate student Jake Duffy (Treasure Island, Fla.) walked, stole second and advanced on two wild pitches.
The Bears went back up, 2-1, in the second on an RBI ground-rule double to left-center by Prampin, scoring senior Danny Jasmin (East Meadow, N.Y.), who was hit by a pitch and stole second.
In the fourth, Prampin walked, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Jeyden Espinal (Fall River, Mass.) for a 3-1 lead.
A fielder's choice brought in Mass. Maritime's final run in the fourth.
BSU received RBI singles from junior Rylan Secovich (Southwick, Mass.), Beltramini and Flaherty in the seventh. The RBI by Flaherty marked the 126th of his career as he moved into sole possession of third place on the Bears' all-time list surpassing Kyle Kupiec who recorded 125 runs batted in from 1990 to 1993.
Junior Damon White (Bourne, Mass.) had two of the Buccaneers' four hits. Junior Sam Wooley (Boynton Beach, Fla.) took the loss, allowing six runs and striking out eight in 6 1/3 innings.
The Bears will be home on Friday at 3 p.m. to open a weekend MASCAC series with Framingham State.