BRIDGEWATER, Mass. – The Brandeis University baseball team held on for a 6-5 victory over host Bridgewater State University on Thursday afternoon at Alumni Park in Bridgewater.
Brandeis (8-7) plated three runs in the third inning and three more in the fourth to jump out to a 6-0 lead.
A sacrifice fly by Sean O'Hare (Southampton, MA) and a Pat Nicholson (East Walpole, MA) two-run double highlighted the Judges three-run third.
In the fourth, back-to-back doubles from Andrew Cohen (Beverly Hills, CA) and Dom Schwartz (San Francisco, CA) made it 4-0 in favor of the visitors. One out later, O'Hare knocked in his second run of the game with a double and then came around to score on an RBI single by Jon Chu (Hollis Hills, NY).
After being no-hit through the first four innings, Bridgewater finally broke through in the fifth as Josh Ferreira (Fall River, MA) and Keane Costa (Fairhaven, MA) hit back-to-back home runs. Ferreira belted a two-run blast over the right-centerfield fence. Costa then followed with an inside-the-park homer, the first in Alumni Park history.
The Bears scored twice in the eighth on a wild pitch and a two-out bases loaded walk to John Garabedian (Mansfield, MA). Nicholson, the Judges fifth pitcher of the inning, gave up the walk to Garabedian but then got Ferreira to ground out to avoid any further damage. Nicholson also tossed a scoreless ninth inning to pick up his second save of the season.
John McGrath (New York, NY) picked up the win on the mound for Brandeis. McGrath (2-0) worked seven plus innings giving up four runs on five hits with three walks and seven strikeouts.
Matt Melia (East Sandwich, MA) suffered the loss for the Bears. Melia went the first four innings allowing all six runs on eight hits with one strikeout.
Bridgewater received excellent relief pitching from Bryant Warner (Harwich, MA) and Andy Sadoski (Harwich, MA). Warner worked a scoreless fifth and sixth, while Sadoski kept the Judges off the scoreboard over the final three innings and struck out three.
Chris Ferro (Walpole, MA) paced the Judges 12-hit attack as he went 3-for-5 at the plate. Nicholson, Schwartz and Tony Deshler (Pepperell, MA) added two hits apiece.