Bridgewater State Baseball Team Has Been This Way Before

By Glen Farley, The Enterprise (Brockton)

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- There is a "been there, done that" feel to this for the Bridgewater State University baseball team.

After all, the Bears advanced all the way to the championship of last year's regional tournament at Whitehouse Field in Harwich before bowing to Western New England.

Twelve of the 26 players on the BSU team that will be in Mansfield, Conn., for this year's New England Regional were on that 2011 ball club.

"That helps a tremendous amount because now they're not all deer in the headlights," Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference coach of the year Rick Smith said prior to Monday's practice at Alumni Park. "They're not all wide eyed. They know what to expect.

"You can only tell them so much. Your batting practices are going to be timed. You have to be here at a certain time. You have to do this. You have to do that. They don't really understand it. Well, now they do, and pretty much the same team is going back again. They're experienced in it. They know where they're supposed to be. They know what they're supposed to do.

"They're used to it and that's a big thing," said Smith. "When they're not worried about what's going to happen next, they don't have to think about it and they can concentrate on what they already know, which is, 'I gotta play.'"

Fifty-six teams remain in contention for the 2012 national championship and the Bears – the champions of the MASCAC – are one of them.

Seeded eighth, the Bears (30-13) will open up the double-elimination tournament with a game against Wheaton (34-8), the tourney's top seed, scheduled to start at 1:15 p.m. on Wednesday.

The teams who emerge from the eight nationwide regionals having done that (eight teams are competing at four of the sites; six teams are vying at each of the other four) will advance to the double-elimination national championship at Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton, Wis., May 25-29.

"With the pitching and defense we have," said junior second baseman Sean Riley, the MASCAC Player of the Year, "if we come up with timely hitting, we can go to the World Series, no doubt."

This year's team has been getting that since it met Wheaton back on March 27 in Bridgewater, game the Bears dropped, 11-6, when the Lyons came from behind by scoring eight times over the last three innings.

The Bears head off to Connecticut in the midst of a torrid streak that's seen them play .913 ball, wiping out a sub-.500 (9-11) start by winning 21 of their last 23 games dating back to a 4-3 victory at Framingham State on March 31.

"It was only a matter of time before we turned it around," said junior David Pierce, the Bears' all-MASCAC first baseman from East Bridgewater whose 40 RBI match Riley for the team lead and whose .381 batting average ranks second. "We knew what we had, knew what we did last year and knew we were a little better this year. It took a few of us to really step up and then it took the new guys to realize, 'OK, we can do this.'"

The BSU pitching staff boasts 29 complete games, including nine in 10 starts by senior Corey Batista (7-3, 2.95), who will take the ball against Wheaton. Playing shortstop, Batista tore the medial collateral ligament and meniscus in his knee while attempting to turn a double play in the ninth inning of the Bears' 6-3 win over the Lyons in an elimination game at last year's regional in Harwich.

Sparked by their leadoff hitter, Riley (.390 with eight home runs and 40 RBI ), the Bears are hitting at a .294 clip as a team. They've outscored opponents, 261-172. Their .969 fielding percentage is 11th in the nation in Div. 3.

"There's no team better than us if we play our game," said Pierce. "Our confidence right now is through the roof."