Baseball Sweeps WPI

By Jim Fenton

NORTHBOROUGH, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University baseball team reached the .500 mark after sweeping a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon.

The Bears hit seven home runs while winning a pair of games against Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 14-5 and 4-2, at the New England Baseball Complex.

BSU (6-6) has won four straight games since losing twice to WPI (7-7) in Myrtle Beach, S.C., on March 13.

Senior Scott Emerson (Peabody, Mass.) junior Joshua Selander (Granby, Conn.), junior Danny Jasmin (East Meadow, N.Y.), senior Philip Messina (Dunkirk, N.Y.) and senior DJ Prampin (Worcester, Mass.) homered in the opener for the Bears.

Emerson and junior Oscar Vargas-Pacheco (Bound Brook, N.J.) had round-trippers in the second game when BSU scored three runs in the final two innings for the victory.

Game One: Bridgewater State 14, WPI 5

The Bears scored in six of the seven innings, getting four in the final inning after holding a 10-5 lead.

Emerson, senior Brendan Flaven (Taunton, Mass.), junior Riley Thornell (Wareham, Mass.) and Jasmin had three hits each for BSU, which held a 17-7 edge over the Engineers.

The Bears held a 2-0 lead in the top of the first with junior Ryan Flaherty (Duxbury, Mass.) getting an RBI single to left and a wild pitch scoring Flaven.

BSU went up, 3-0, in the second on a homer to right by Jasmin, his first of the season.

WPI cut the deficit to 3-2 in the second on a two-run single down the right-field line by freshman Chuck Cappello (Southboro, Mass.).

The Bears responded with back-to-back homers to left-center in the third from Selander and Messina for a 5-2 advantage. For Selander, the home run was his first of the season while Messina went deep for the first time in his BSU career.

Senior Andrew Cash (Marlboro, Mass.) homered in the bottom of the inning to get WPI within 5-3.

BSU scored twice in the fourth with Flaven producing a ground-rule double to left-center to drive in a run and Flaherty adding a sacrifice fly for a 7-3 lead.

An RBI double by junior Liam Keblin (Newton, Mass.) in the fourth pulled WPI within 7-4, but the Bears scored three in the fifth.

Prampin homered to right-center after a singled by Thornell and Emerson added an RBI single.

WPI's final run was in the fifth as sophomore Matt Shea (Andover, Mass.) singled, went to third on a Burns double and scored on a groundout.

BSU finished the scoring in the seventh as Emerson hit a two-run homer to right, Selander had an RBI single to center and the final run came home on a wild pitch.

Junior Trey Yesu (Monson, Mass.) went the first five innings, striking out five, to improve to 2-2 for the Bears with senior Cameron Breault (Buzzards Bay, Mass.) pitching the final two innings.

Game Two: Bridgewater State 4, WPI 2

Four BSU pitchers limited the Engineers to five hits in the nightcap.

Sophomore Patrick Chapin (Framingham, Mass.), who pitched the fourth and fifth innings, earned his first collegiate win while senior Nick Reiser (Nahant, Mass.) earned his second save of the season with a scoreless ninth inning.

The Bears trailed, 1-0, in the third when the Engineers produced a run with a double steal.

BSU tied it in the fourth when a groundout scored Emerson, who had singled to left and moved up on a sacrifice and intentional walk.

WPI tied it in the fifth on a leadoff homer by senior Tommy Burns (Morris Plains, N.J.).

The Bears went up, 3-2, in the sixth as sophomore Benjamin Sepeck (Whitman, Mass.) reached on an infield hit and scored on Vargas-Pacheco homer to center. For Vargas-Pacheco, the home run marked his first as a Bear.

BSU added a run in the seventh on Emerson's homer.

WPI threatened in the seventh putting runners on with a walk and an infield hit, but Reiser struck out the side, getting the final two outs with the runners aboard.

Emerson led the offense by going 3-for-4 while Vargas-Pacheco drove in three of the four runs.

BSU will be at Curry College on Monday at 3:30 p.m.

WPI travels to Norton to face Wheaton College at 3:30 p.m. in the NEWMAC opener.

- Photo courtesy of Jonah Carter '27/WPI Athletics -