PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- The Bridgewater State University baseball team wrapped up its Florida trip with an 11-5 setback to #15 Marietta College on Friday morning at the Snowbird Baseball Classic in Port Charlotte.
The Pioneers improve to 8-1 on the season, while the Bears fall to 1-7.
Damian Yenzi (Pittsburgh, Pa.) walked to lead off the inning and scored all the way from first on an RBI double by Seamus Kenneally (Lebanon, Ohio). Kenneally advanced to third on a ground out and trotted home on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Tate Engle (Beverly, Ohio).
The Bears pushed across three runs in top of the third to jump ahead. Joey Molis (Cumberland, R.I.) singled with one out, but was forced at second on a fielder's choice groundout by Luke Tamulevich (Whitman, Mass.). Colin Josselyn (Hanson, Mass.) followed with an RBI double down the right field line as Tamulevich raced home from first. Lewis Robinson (New Britain, Conn.) then blasted a two-run homer over the left field fence to make it a 3-2 game. The home run marked Robinson's first of the season and fourth of his career.
The Pioneers sent nine batters to the plate and scored four times in the fourth inning to climb back on top, 6-3. Yenzi rapped an RBI double in the frame while Kenneally and Engle added run-scoring singles. The other run came across on a wild pitch.
Molis and Tamulevich opened the fifth inning with back-to-back base hits. After a fielder's choice ground out and a shallow fly out, Jonathan Livolsi (Bridgewater, Mass.) lined an RBI single to right to plate Molis and close the gap to 6-4.
The Pioneers again sent nine batters to the plate and plated four more runs in the bottom of the fifth to extend the lead to 10-4. Matthew Busby (St. Clairsville, Ohio) knocked in the first run of the frame with an RBI double, while Alex Page (Monroe, Ohio) added a two-run double and Jared Weiss (Uniontown, Ohio) capped off the inning with an RBI single.
After a scoreless sixth inning, the Bears scored an unearned run in the top of the seventh to cut the deficit to 10-5. Josselyn walked and Robinson followed with a base hit to put runners on first and second with nobody out. Livolsi forced Robinson at second on a fielder's ground out, but the shortstop threw the ball away trying to complete the double play allowing Josselyn to score.
Marietta took advantage of two BSU miscues in the eighth to extend the lead to 11-5. Drew Holderbach (Fairfield, Ohio) reached on an infield error, moved to second on a groundout, stole third and trotted home on an errant throw by the catcher.
Robinson went 3-for-5 with the two-run homer to pace the Bears' 11-hit attack. Molis also finished with three hits for Bridgewater State as he went 3-for-4 with a walk and a run scored.
Yenzi (2-3, 2B, 2BB, 3R, RBI), Kenneally (2-5, 2B, 2R, 2RBI), Page (2-5, 2B, R, 2RBI) and Cottom (2-5, 2R) all registered two hits apiece for the Pioneers.
Griffin Malick (Akron, Ohio) picked up the win on the mound for Marietta in relief of starter Nicklaus Brown (Kenton, Ohio). Malick faced three batters and got the final two outs of the fifth inning.
Sam Mathews (Fairfield, Ohio) recorded his third save of the season. Mathews allowed an unearned run on four hits over four innings with a walk and four strikeouts.
Guy Quartarone (Foxborough, Mass.) and Jake Graham (East Bridgewater, Mass.) combined to give up just one unearned run on one hit and two walks in 3 1/3 innings of relief for the Bears.
Notes: Molis batted .444 (12-27) with a pair of doubles, two walks and two runs scored during the eight-game Florida swing, while Liam Bell (Wells, Maine) batted .393 (11-28) with two doubles, three walks, a stolen base, six runs scored and five RBI.