Worcester, MA- The Worcester State Baseball team (5-18, 4-6) would aim to crack their six game losing streak and come out victorious versus the visiting Bridgewater State Bears (13-12, 6-5). Worcester would return to conference play today after a brief stint away down at UMass-Boston on Wednesday broke apart their conference row of games as a result of the ever changing weekend weather of New England.
FINAL: Bridgewater State 13 | 7 Worcester State
HOW IT HAPPENED:
Taking control of the pitcher's mound first would be Worcester State's sophomore Craig Barnes (Billerica, MA) who would award junior Scott Emerson (Peabody, MA) four consecutive balls before he would make up for his early errors and seize the first out for the Lancers, striking out senior Kevin Lindsay (East Bridgewater, MA). Moments later, Ryan Flaherty would be the first to make contact with the ball, sending it flying far out to center field. But, with assertive defensive play, a Lancer would track the ball down and give the Bears their second out before the third out would come just seconds later.
The bottom of the first would see junior Tyler Smith (Leominster, MA) at home plate for Worcester State's first stint on offense. Although each Lancer would successfully hit each ball thrown by graduate student Mattew Seavy (North Attleboro, MA), all would ultimately fall into the gloves of Bear's and mark three outs as well as a promising start for the Lancers. That would be until several Bears, Emerson, sophomore Riley Thornell (Wareham, MA), and junior DJ Prampin (Worcester, MA), would amass a total of three runs in just a matter of minutes. Desperately needing to respond, the Lancers would craft a seamless offensive scheme and have the bases loaded with Ryan Jewett looking to bring them home. As the ball bounced off his bat, and each Lancer rushing to their respective base, the Bears would quickly beat them to the punch, granting the Lancer's their third and final out before they were able to capitalize on their golden opportunity.
Shortly after this dramatic event that left the relentless Lancers still scoreless, Bridgewater State would waste no time in picking up where they left off as graduate student Steven Simon (Hanover, MA), Emerson, Lindsay and sophomore Ryan Flaherty (Duxbury, MA) would increase the Bear's margin to an assertive 7-0 lead.
After additional threats in the fourth the Lancers would put in first year Tedy Cove (Worcester, MA). But shortly after the substitution was made, Simon and graduate student Mattew Pigeon (Canton, MA) would tally two more runs and increase the Bears lead to 9-0 before Worcester State's senior Frankie Hernandez (Framingham, MA) would fiercely strike the ball for a home run over the right field fence, scoring the first of the Lancer's runs and attributing to a boost in their morale.
Cove would continue the boost by shutting out the Bears in the top of the fifth, preventing them from extending their lead. The Lancers would be unable to build into the deficit in the bottom of the fifth though as Bridgewate's defense in the field shut down their attack.
The Bears would add another run in the sixth to extend their lead to 10, but Worcester would answer back in the bottom of the at bats as Hernadnez led the action with a single to get on base that was quickly followed up by Thurber reaching on an error by the third baseman. A double by sophomore Joe Auger (Lowell, MA) would send both home. Gavin Wells would end up on first after an error on second in an error-filled inning for the Bears that would send Auger home for run three, in the chaos the first baseman would impede Wells from getting to second and an interference call would then award him the base. Moments later, Worcester State would finally capitalize on the Bear's crucial mistakes and find themselves back in the game with two runs taken in by Wells and first year Jemery Delacruz (Lowell, MA) off an Iamarone double to left field. With the bases again reloaded, the Bears would make a swap on the mound and finally find their way out of the inning with a 10-6 lead.
The top of the seventh the Bears would snag an 11th run as Worcester again would make a pitching change that would see Zachary Scotti taking over the pitching duties. Worcester would make a valiant attempt to respond in the bottom of the inning but were shut out of the action. Scotti would continue his success in the eighth, keeping the Bears off the board.
But nothing lasts forever and in the ninth and final inning, the Bridgewater State Bears would put the game away with two more runs taken in by Flaherty and Simon, ending the contest with a score of 13-7.
WHAT'S NEXT: With the loss, the Lancers now look forward to their highly anticipated rematch against the Bridgewater State Bears, which has been postponed due the normal as of this season weekend rain, to the following day, Sunday April 21st with the same 12pm and 2:30 game times.