Baseball Runs Winning Streak to 11 with 6-2 Victory Over Curry

By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University baseball team kept its winning ways going Wednesday afternoon, recording a non-conference victory.

The Bears made it 11 consecutive wins, limiting Curry College to five hits and defeating the Colonels, 6-2, at Alumni Park.

BSU (16-5) has not lost since March 24 when it dropped the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference opener to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

The 11-game winning streak matches the program's longest one since 2012.

Senior DJ Prampin (Worcester, Mass.) homered for the second straight day and had three of the Bears' seven hits. He also stole two bases and scored two runs including the 100th of his career.

Freshman Ethan Palmer (Attleboro, Mass.), the starter, plus freshman Logan Cormier (Athol, Mass.) and senior Danny Jasmin (East Meadow, N.Y.) each pitched three innings.

Cormier (2-0) was the winning pitcher in relief, giving up three hits and striking out four in three scoreless frames. Jasmin struck out seven of the nine batters he faced over three perfect innings for his first career save while Palmer allowed two runs and two hits.

Curry (6-10) took a 1-0 lead in the third inning on an RBI single by senior Brandon Mantilla-Mercado (Stoughton, Mass.). He had two of the five hits by the Colonels.

BSU went ahead in the bottom of the inning, scoring twice.

Sophomore Jeyden Espinal (Fall River, Mass.) had an infield hit and advanced on a sacrifice bunt by junior Rylan Secovich (Southwick, Mass.) and went to third on an error on the play.

Sophomore Cam Beltramini (Hanson, Mass.) walked and with two outs, junior Benjamin Sepeck (Whitman, Mass.) singled through the left side for a pair of runs.

Curry tied it in the fourth inning on a run-scoring single to right-center by junior Ryan Murphy (Cheshire, Conn.), making it 2-2.

BSU went ahead for good in the bottom of the inning on an RBI hit by freshman Nick Berube (Swampscott, Mass.).

The Bears stretched the lead to 5-2 in the seventh on a two-run single through the left  side by Beltramini to score Berube, who had walked, and Secovich, who was hit by a pitch.

Prampin finished the scoring with two outs in the eighth, hitting his team-leading sixth homer to left field and the 21st of his career.

Freshman Ryan Crowley (Taunton, Mass.), the second of five Curry pitchers, took the loss, allowing a run and three hits with three strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings.

BSU is idle until Tuesday when it will travel to Salem State for a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference game at 3 p.m.

Curry has a noon doubleheader on Saturday at the Wentworth Institute of Technology.