Baseball Falls to #11 Wheaton, 16-2

NORTON, Mass. – The Wheaton College baseball team cruised to a 16-2 non-conference win over visiting Bridgewater State University on Thursday afternoon at Sidell Stadium.

The host Lyons, who are ranked 11th in the D3baseball.com Poll and 13th in the ABCA Division III Coaches Poll, improve to 26-7 on the season. The Bears fall to 12-17 overall with the setback.

Seven pitchers saw action on the mound for the Lyons. Paul Prue (Dennis, Mass.) got the start and allowed one run on three hits over three innings with a walk and five strikeouts. Tommy Larason (Norwell, Mass.), who came on in the fourth, picked up the win in relief. Larason gave up a run on three hits with two strikeouts in his innings of work. The rest of the Wheaton staff kept the Bears off the scoreboard over the final five innings and allowed just one hit.

Six BSU pitchers combined to give up 16 runs (15 earned) on 15 hits with six walks and eight strikeouts. Seven of the Lyons' 15 hits went for extra bases including three home runs.

Zach Demattio (North Attleboro, Mass.) finished the contest 2-for-2 which included an inside-the-park home run, while Jacob Studley (Barrington, R.I.) went 2-for-3 with a walk, two runs and three RBI, and Willy Boyd (Orleans, Mass.) was 2-for-3 at the plate with a triple, two runs and an RBI.

The Lyons scored all the runs they would need in the bottom of the first inning on a two-run double by Bryant Salkind (Rochester, Mass.) and Demattio's two-run, inside-the park home run.

RBI singles from Studley and junior Nick Raposo (Johnston, R.I.) gave Wheaton a 6-0 advantage after the first two innings.

Bridgewater State earned its first run in the top of the third with David Skiendiel (Norton, Mass.) coming around to score on a Lewis Robinson (New Britain, Conn.) RBI single to right.

The Bears cut the deficit to 6-2 in the top of the fifth. Back-to-back singles by Liam Bell (Wells, Maine) and Kevin Bresciani (Hopedale, Mass.) put runners at the corners with nobody out, Bell would score one out later on Jonathan Livolsi's (Bridgewater, Mass.) sacrifice fly.

George Mulcahey (Brooklyn, N.Y.) connected for a two-run homer and Raposo belted a three-run blast in a six-run, fifth inning as the Lyons pulled ahead 12-2. Raposo (2-for-6, run) finished with four runs batted in on the afternoon, while Mulcahey (2-for-4, 2 runs) knocked in three.

Wheaton tacked on three more runs in the sixth. Mulcahey double home a run and scored on Boyd's RBI triple. Boyd would score the third run of the frame on an RBI ground out.

Jimmy Gianquitti (North Scituate, R.I.) singled home a run in the eighth to cap off the scoring.

Dominic Precopio (Framingham, Mass.) reached safely three times to pace the BSU offense. Precopio went 2-for-3 with a double and a walk. Robinson finished 1-for-2 at the plate with a walk and an RBI.

The Bears return to the diamond on Friday afternoon when they travel to Westfield State University for a 3:30 MASCAC game with the Owls. The Lyons travel to MIT on Saturday for a noontime NEWMAC twinbill with the Engineers.