Baseball Falls to Framingham State, 11-10

By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University baseball team had a three-game winning streak halted on Tuesday afternoon.

The Bears built leads of 6-2 and 9-4 but were overtaken by Framingham State University, 11-10, at Alumni Park.

The Rams, who were the home team on BSU's field, put together a five-run sixth inning and scored the winning run in the bottom of the seventh.

The Bears (8-7) fell to 2-1 in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference while Framingham State (2-11) is now 1-2 in the conference. BSU had swept a doubleheader from the Rams to open the MASCAC schedule on Saturday.

BSU had 13 hits with Scott Emerson (Peabody, Mass.), Kevin Lindsay (East Bridgewater, Mass.), Ryan Flaherty (Duxbury, Mass.), Mathew Pigeon (Canton, Mass.) and DJ Prampin (Worcester, Mass.) all going 2-for-5.

Steven Simon (Hanover, Mass.) belted a three-run homer while Lindsay, Flaherty and Pigeon had two RBI apiece.

Robert Johnston (Watertown, Conn.) had three hits and three RBI and JC Espinal (Peabody, Mass.) had three hits for the Rams while John Lynch (Quincy, Mass.) went 2-for-4 with four RBI and Shane Costello (Wilmington, Mass.) had two hits.

Winning pitcher Peter Moniz (Berkley, Mass.) allowed one earned run in 3 1-3 innings of relief and is 1-0 while Benjamin Respress (Takoma Park, Md.) picked up his first save, striking out three and allowing no hits or runs in two innings.

Losing pitcher Blake Samuelson (Millbury, Mass.) worked one inning in relief, allowing an unearned run and no hits.

BSU held a 6-2 lead in the middle of the third inning, getting three runs in the top of the first when Simon blasted his three-run homer, scoring Emerson and Lindsay, who had singled.

The Bears added a run in the second when a bunt by Emerson scored Pigeon, who had singled, but the Rams got within 4-2 in the bottom of the inning on a run-scoring double to right-center by Dane Frellick (Fairview, N.C.) and a sacrifice fly to center by Matthew Hart (Canton, Mass.).

BSU scored twice in the top of the third with Pigeon delivering a two-run single after Jay Wladkowski (Norwood, Mass.) doubled and Riley Thornell (Wareham, Mass.) singled.

The Rams closed to 6-4 in the bottom of the third with Johnston singling home Espinal, who had doubled, and scoring on a groundout.

The Bears opened a 9-4 lead in the fifth inning as Lindsay tripled to score Prampin and Cam James (Ipswich, Mass.) and Flaherty added an RBI single.

Framingham State made it 9-5 in the bottom of the inning as a double play brought home Lynch from third.

The Rams took their first lead in the sixth with the five-run outburst.

Costello, Lucas Basile (Upton, Mass.) and Espinal all reached on infield hits and Johnston singled in a run. Lynch then brought in the three runners with a triple to right and scored on an infield hit by Danny Robichaud (Dracut, Mass.).

BSU finished its scoring in the seventh when Flaherty doubled to left, scoring Emerson, who had singled, to make it 10-10.

But the Rams took the lead for good in the bottom of the seventh on an infield hit by Johnston that scored Ryan Boyle (Arlington, Mass.).

The teams combined for 28 hits and each left 10 runners on base. BSU pitchers had 10 strikeouts while Framingham State pitchers fanned nine.

The Bears are at Salem State on Friday at 3:30 and will host the Vikings in a doubleheader on Saturday at noon.

The Rams host the Mass. College of Liberal Arts on Friday at 3 p.m.