BRIDGEWATER, Mass. – In MASCAC baseball action this afternoon, the Bridgewater State College Bears split a doubleheader versus Fitchburg State. Fitchburg State took the first game 8-4 in eight innings, and BSC took the second game 12-10. Bridgewater, winners of 9 of their last 11 improve to 13-8 and 4-2 in the MASCAC. Fitchburg goes to 11-12 overall and 5-3 the MASCAC with the split.

In the first game junior right-hander Matt Maguire (Salisbury, MA) went the distance, pitching eight innings in a 139 pitch performance for his fourth win of the season. Maguire (4-0) gave up 4 runs (3 earned) on 6 hits. He struck out 7 batters and allowed 5 walks. Senior right-hander Jordan Richards (Amesbury, MA) dips to 0-5 on the season with the loss. Richards went 8 1/3 innings giving up 7 earned runs on 8 hits. He also struck out 4 batters, allowed 2 walks, and hit 3.  Fitchburg got on the board to start things off plating three runs in the top of the first. On an RBI double by freshman Kris Breen (DH/1B, Griswold, CT) and a 2-run single by senior Shawn Kinney (RF, Bennington, VT), Fitchburg took the 3-0 lead.

Bridgewater answered back scoring two runs in the bottom of the first on a two run single by Steve Smith (LF, East Taunton, MA). The game remained 3-2 until Bridgewater tied the score in the fifth inning. Brad Koneski (RF, North Dighton, MA) led off the inning with a double to left field and scored a two out triple by Andrew Dillon (CF, Whitman, MA). Richards settled down in the second inning and retired 18 of the 23 batters he faced after giving up three runs in the first. Bottom of the second Bridgewater threatened to win the game drawing walks with one out, but Maguire struck out a batter and sophomore catcher Kelly LaDow (East Falmouth, MA) flied out to end the scoring threat.

Fitchburg would take the lead for good by plating five runs in the top of the eighth. Fitchburg loaded the bases on a base hit, a hit batter, and a walk. On a 0-1 count, Breen lined a single into center field that drove in Matt Slattery (Gardner, MA) from third and gave Fitchburg the lead. Kinney followed that up with a triple to right center that drove in two more runs, and made it a 6-3 game. With two outs, Fitchburg would break the game open with a RBI single from junior Neil Gendron (CF, Salem, MA) and an RBI triple from Andrew Kiewlicz (3B, Walpole, MA).

In the second game, Schilling got the victory in relief and junior Dave Liffers (Norwell, MA) got his first save of the season. Freshman right-hander Spencer Hatstat (Clinton, MA) started the game for the Bears and went 3 2/3 innings, until he was relieved by junior Sean Sullivan (Quincy, MA) in the fourth. Bridgewater State pitching allowed 10 runs (8 earned) on 14 hits. They also struck out five batters and allowed five walks. Junior right hander Keith Weagle (Oxford, MA) was tagged with the loss for the Falcons. In five innings, Weagle gave up 10 runs (9 earned) on 11 hits. He also struck out 2 and allowed 5 walks. Bridgewater State started the scoring in the first by putting up two runs on back-to-back RBI ground outs by Dillon and LaDow.

Fitchburg scored a run in the top of the second to cut the lead to 2-1 with an RBI single by Gendron. The Bears answered back by plating two runs in the third on an RBI single by senior Dana Hansen (Hanover, MA) and a bases loaded walk to sophomore Dave Kiloski (Lowell, MA).  Fitchburg jumped ahead 5-4 with a four run fourth inning highlighted by RBI singles by freshman Justin Hubbard (DH, Stamford, CT) and Gendron the top of the fourth inning. The Falcons scored the tying and go-ahead runs innings on a two-base throwing error during a double steal of second and third. BSC tied the game in the fifth as junior Jon Lombardi (C, Taunton, MA) led off the inning with a single and moved to second on a groundout. Lombardi would score the tying run on an infield error. Fitchburg answered in the top half of the sixth, however, as the Falcons took a 6-5 lead on an RBI single by Kinney.

That would set the stage for the bottom of the sixth inning as the Bears offense exploded for 7 runs to take what seemed an insurmountable 12-6 lead. Trailing 6-5, BSC loaded the bases with nobody out when Lombardi singled home two runs to give BSC the 7-6 lead. Hansen followed with an RBI double and Kiloski walked to reload the bases. Senior Jay Lamoureux (Walpole, MA) then executed a perfect suicide squeeze bunt to plate Lombardi from third with the fourth run of the inning. One out later Koneski hit a pop up in the infield which was dropped resulting in two more runs. Koneski then stole second and third and scored on a wild pitch. Fitchburg made things interesting in the top of the seventh as the Falcons scored three runs to cut the deficit to 12-9. Liffers was called on to stop the bleeding, and after striking out a batter and allowing an RBI single, induced a pair of infield pop ups to end the game.