BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University baseball team cruised to a 17-5 win over Gordon College on Tuesday afternoon at Alumni Park. The game was stopped in the bottom of the seventh inning due to a ten-run mercy rule.
The Bears improve to 15-5 on the season with their seventh straight win, while the visiting Fighting Scots fall to 8-15. Bridgewater State is 5-1 versus Gordon since the two teams first met in 2016 including a 6-3 victory yesterday afternoon in Wenham, Massachusetts.
The Bears banged out 11 hits on the afternoon, were issued 13 walks to go along with a pair of hit batsmen and stole eight bases.
BSU lefthander Harrison Loud tossed four solid innings of relief to earn his first collegiate win. Loud (1-0) allowed two runs (one earned) on five hits with a walk and six strikeouts.
Gordon jumped out to a 1-0 lead on an RBI single by Dalton Cody.
The Bears answered with two runs in the bottom of the first on a pair of RBI fielder's choice grounders from Riley Thornell and Cam James.
Bridgewater rallied with two out in the bottom of the second to extend the lead to 4-1. The Bears loaded the bases on back-to-back singles by Kevin Lindsay and Scott Emerson followed by a walk to Jay Wladkowski. A wild pitch plated Lindsay and consecutive walks to Thornell and Joey Molis forced in Emerson with the second run of the frame.
A clutch two-run single by Gianni Mercurio with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the third cut the Gordon deficit to 4-3.
The Bears sent 11 batters to plate in a six-run fourth inning. Wladkowski and Molis connected for RBI singles in the frame. Joshua Selander added a two-run base knock, while Lindsay was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Emerson capped of the inning with a sacrifice fly.
A Thornell two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the sixth extended the BSU lead to 12-3.
The Fighting Scots got two back in the top of the seventh on RBI singles by Andrew Hartman and CJ Demers.
The Bears answered with a five-run seventh to put the finishing touches on the 17-5 win. Bases loaded walks to Emerson and Dan Jasmin accounted for the first two runs of the frame. Kyle Suraci then ended the contest with a bases clearing three-run double.
Emerson and Lindsay each reached safely four times and stole three bases. Emerson scored five runs and knocked in two as he went 1-for-2 with two walks and a hit by pitch. Lindsay also went 1-for-2 with a pair of walks and a hit by pitch. He scored three runs and drove in one.
Wladkowski (2-4, BB, 2R, RBI), Thornell (1-4, BB, 3RBI), Molis (1-3, 2BB, R, 2RBI), James (2-5, 2B, R, RBI), Selander (1-4, BB, 2R, 2RBI) and Sean Goudey (1-2, BB) also reached safely multiple times for the Bears. Wladkowski recorded his 100th career hit with a single in the first inning.
Demers went 3-for-3 with a walk, a run and an RBI to pace the Fighting Scots' offense. Hartman was 1-for-2 at the plate with a walk, two runs and an RBI.
Six Gordon pitchers combined to allow 17 runs (14 earned) on 11 hits with 13 walks and two hit batsmen.
In upcoming action, the Bears begin a three-game set with Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) foe Framingham State University on Thursday afternoon at three o'clock. The Fightin Scots entertain Nichols College in a Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) twinbill on Saturday with game one getting underway at 11:00 AM.