Baseball Drops 5-4 Senior Day Decision to Westfield

By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University baseball team opened an important regular season-ending series by having a seven-game winning streak halted.

With a chance to move into a first-place tie in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference, the Bears were edged by Westfield State University, 5-4, at Alumni Park on Senior Day Friday afternoon.

Heading into the final day of the season, Framingham State University and Westfield State are tied for the top spot at 13-6. BSU and Salem State are a game behind at 12-7, and all four teams play doubleheaders on Saturday afternoon.

The Bears travel to Westfield State for a doubleheader at noon. Framingham State faces Fitchburg State in a twinbill while Salem State plays a pair against the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

BSU (21-14) held a 3-0 against Westfield State (25-12), then fell behind, 4-3, before scoring the tying run in the bottom of the eighth. The Owls won the game by scoring an unearned run in the ninth.

The Bears had scored in double figures in each of their seven games during the winning streak, averaging 16.6 runs and 15.9 hits.

Westfield State broke the 4-4 tie in the final inning by taking advantage of BSU's third error of the day.

Trey Faulkner (Springfield, Mass.) led the inning by drawing a four-pitch walk and Alex Martin (Shrewsbury, Mass.) sacrificed him to second. After the out was recorded, the ball got away from the first baseman, allowing Faulkner to move to third.

Sam Palmer (Medfield, Mass.) then hit a sacrifice fly to center field to put the Owls in front.

In the bottom of the ninth, Ryan Flaherty (Duxbury, Mass.) had a one-out single, but the next two Bears were retired.

Kevin Lindsay (East Bridgewater, Mass.) had three of BSU's nine hits while Jay Wladkowski (Norwood, Mass.) and DJ Prampin (Worcester, Mass.) had two hits each.

The Owls had seven hits with Chace Racine (Pittsfield, Mass.) getting two of them.

Winning pitcher Joe Espinola (Plymouth, Mass.) improved to 3-1, allowing one hit and striking out two in the final 1 2-3 innings.

Nick Reiser (Nahant, Mass.) took the loss, surrendering the unearned run in the ninth.

The game features a pair of undefeated pitchers as the starters.

BSU's Matthew Seavey (North Attleboro, Mass.), who is 7-0, went seven innings, giving up four runs and six hits while striking out two.

Westfield State's Ryan Lapierre (Pittsfield, Mass.), who is 8-0, gave up three runs and six hits, striking out six in six innings.

The Bears opened the scoring with two runs in the second inning.

Wladkowski singled up the middle and Prampin drew a walk. Joshua Selander (Granby, Conn.) then singled to right-center field to score Wladkowski.

After going to third on Selander's hit, Prampin scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Cam James (Ipwich, Mass.).

With one out in the fourth inning, Prampin hit an opposite-field homer to right field, giving BSU a 3-0 lead.

Prampin has three home runs this season and it was only the third homer allowed by Lapierre this season.

Westfield State trimmed the deficit to 3-2 in the fifth inning, taking advantage of a throwing error.

Robison Guerrero Baez (Dominican Republic) led with a single up the middle and Faulkner followed with a single to right.

Guerrero Baez went to third on the hit and scored on the throwing error with Faulkner winding up on third. A groundout by Martin brought home Faulkner.

The Owls took their first lead at 4-3 in the sixth inning with two more runs.

Devin Slattery (Ware, Mass.) walked and advanced on a single by Racine that fell in shallow center. A balk put runners at second and third, and an infield error on a ball hit by Nolan Florence (Chicopee, Mass.) brought the two runs in.

BSU tied the game in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI single by Prampin.

Mathew Pigeon (Canton, Mass.) was hit by a pitch to lead the inning and went third on an errant pickoff throw. Prampin then delivered the hit up the middle.

Prampin went to second on a wild pitch and then stole third with two outs, but the Bears were unable to bring him home.

Prior to the game, six BSU seniors were honored in a ceremony.

The group included James, Wladkowski, Lindsay, Joe Frechette (Plymouth, Mass.), Nathan Labonte (Raynham, Mass.) and Kyle Suraci (Clinton, Conn.).

Scott Emerson (Peabody, Mass.) had a 15-game hitting streak end as he went 0-for-5 while Pigeon had a 13-game streak halted after going 0-for-3.