Baseball Sweeps Salem State in MASCAC Twinbill

SALEM, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State Bears shut out Salem State, 3-0 and 7-0, to earn consecutive wins over the Vikings who closed out their 2011 MASCAC regular season.

The Vikings finished the regular season with an overall record of 16-18 (8-6 MASCAC). The Bears improved to 18-14 overall (7-5 MASCAC). Both teams have qualified for the postseason conference tournament and will await their seeding following Bridgewater State's doubleheader at MCLA tomorrow afternoon.

In game one action, Bridgewater State's Dave Billotte (Norton, MA) pitched a complete game shutout and struck out eight batters in the Bears' 3-0 victory over the Vikings .

The Vikings had nine hits, but could not score as they stranded 10 base runners.

Borges got the loss for Salem State in a complete seven inning effort. He gave up three runs, two earned on seven hits. He struck out five batters and walked one.

Bridgewater State jumped off to an early 2-0 lead in the first on a pair of Viking errors. Joshua Ferreira led off the inning with a base hit and later scored when shortstop Ryan Kane (Nahant, MA) bobbled a Keane Costa (Fairhaven, MA) ground ball. Costa eventually took third on a wild pitch and scored on an errant throw by Erik Juncker (Rockport, MA) to put the Bears up 2-0 after one.

Bridgewater scored once more in the fourth inning on a Matt Barsaleau (Holland, MA) RBI single.

The Vikings missed opportunities to score in the first, fourth, fifth and seventh innings when they had two runners on base with nobody out.

Mike Lamouthe (Beverly MA) and Kevin Salines (Melrose, MA) began the seventh inning with singles, but the Vikings were unable to rally. Salines got hit by a Geury Alonzo's (Boston, MA) ground ball for the first out of the inning. Billotte then retired the next two hitters, and the Bears won game one 3-0.

Corey Batista (Fall River, MA) threw a complete game shut-out in game two as the Bears blanked the Vikings again 7-0. He narrowly missed a no-hitter giving up just two questionable infield hits, while walking one and striking out four.

The shutout marked the third straight and school-record fourth of the season for Batista (5-2) as he has not allowed a run in the last 22 1/3 innings.  Batista eclipsed the previous standard of three shutouts set by John Kiely in 1986 and Scott Favreau in 2003.

Batista also tied the BSU single-season program mark with his seventh complete game.  Kevin Cadres originally set the record in 2001 and it was equaled by Tim Hart the following season.  Batista lowered his earned run average on the year to an impressive 1.21.

Bridgewater scored in the sixth when Viking's starting pitcher Cory Collins (Winthrop, MA) balked in the game's first run.

Collins got the loss in 6 1/3 innings of work. He gave up five earned runs on 10 hits, with two walks and four strikeouts.

The Bears opened up the game up in the seventh inning scoring six runs on seven hits. Jose Polanco (Lawrence, MA) got the rally started with a one-out double into the left-center gap. John Garabedian (Mansfield, MA) drove in Polanco with a base hit. Collins was lifted after consecutive singles to load the bases. Mario Padovanni (Lynnfield, MA) retired the first batter, but Costa hit a two-run single to give Bridgewater State a 5-0 lead. David Pierce (East Bridgewater, MA) later plated two more Bears with a double and Bridgewater took a 7-0 lead. Andrew Guido () relieved Padovanni and recorded the final out.

Costa and Pierce each went 2-for-4 with two runs batted in for the Bears. Steve Butkus (Reading, MA) and Kevin Salines (Melrose, MA) recorded the only two hits, both infield singles for the Vikings.