No. 2 Bears Defeat No. 1 Vikings in MASACAC Baseball Tournament Semifinals

SALEM, Mass.  – Bridgewater State's Trey Yesu (Monson, Mass.) pitched eight strong innings and the trio of Scott Emerson (Peabody, Mass.), Kevin Lindsay (East Bridgewater, Mass.) and Ryan Flaherty (Duxbury, Mass.) collected two hits apiece to lead the No. 2 Bears to a 5-3 victory over No. 1 Salem State in the semifinals of the MASCAC Baseball Tournament on Friday afternoon. Bridgewater State (25-14) advances to the championship round while the Vikings (22-14) will play an elimination game tomorrow against No. 4 Westfield State at 11:00 am at The Central Campus Baseball Field. 

Yesu goes to 6-2 on the season after allowing two earned runs on five hits, with a walk and eight strikeouts. Nick Reiser (Nahant, Mass.) pitched a scoreless ninth to pick up his second save of the season. Salem State starter Cam Fisher (Burlington, Conn.) took the loss to go to 6-1 on the season. He lasted 6.2 innings and was charged with two runs on eight hits with three strikeouts.

Both offenses were quiet early as each pitcher allowed only one hit over the first three innings with Yesu racking up four strikeouts. A lead-off double by Emerson in the first and Antonio Belgrove's (Stamford, Conn.) one-out triple to left were the only hits allowed by either pitcher over the first three innings with both teams stranding a runner at third.

Salem State finally struck first, as an RBI single by EJ Field (Gloucester, Mass.) scored Jake Boucher (Wallingford, Conn.), who had walked, from second base with the game's first run in the fifth.

The Bears had the lead-off batter on in four straight innings and finally broke through in the seventh, scoring twice to take a 2-1 lead. Matt Pigeon (Canton, Mass.) led-off with a single. A Joe Frechette (Plymouth, Mass.) single put runners on the corners and Emerson stroked an RBI base hit to right center to deliver the first run. Lindsay delivered the third consecutive hit for Bridgewater State to score Frechette with the go-ahead run to chase Fisher.

Kyle Banche (Torrington, Conn.) replaced Fisher in the eighth and a two-out single by Joshua Selander (Granby, Conn.) drove in two more runs for Bridgewater State as the Bears took a 4-1 lead. Nolan Currier (Maynard, Mass.) came on to record the final out of the inning.

An error by the Bears leftfielder to start the eighth led to an RBI triple by Mark Smith (East Haven, Conn.). An RBI groundout by Yabdriel Gonzalez (New Haven, Conn.) then drew Salem State to within 4-3, but Yesu worked out of further trouble. 

A lead-off walk issued by Currier in the ninth led to Jake Boucher (Wallingford, Conn.) coming into the game in relief for the Vikings. Another hit set up Jay Wladkowski (Norwood) to plate an insurance run for the Bears, who took a 5-3 lead.     

Bridgewater State's Reiser allowed a one-out single in the ninth before securing the win with back-to-back flyouts, including a diving catch by Wladkowsk to end the game. 

The Vikings, who had their seven-game winning streak snapped, managed just six hits, with just two going for extra bases.