Bridgewater Opens Season With Two Wins At N.C. Wesleyan

More news about: Bridgewater (Va.)

ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. - The Bridgewater College baseball team opened its season Sunday afternoon by sweeping a non-conference doubleheader at North Carolina Wesleyan College. The Eagles won the opener 8-1 and then took the second game 5-3.

In the opener, starter Corey Armentrout and four relief pitchers combined to limit the Bishops to just three hits. Armentrout pitched five innings to get the win with Tyler Slanovec, Tyler Conley, Justin Petock and Kyle Henshaw finishing up with one inning each on the mound. Armentrout gave up just two hits while walking four and striking out three in his five innings. Henshaw struck out the side in the ninth to end the game.

The Eagles scored two runs in the first and made the score 3-0 in the third on back-to-back doubles by Bay Liskey and Brendan Howell.

Bridgewater broke the game open in the fifth with four runs to take a 7-0 lead. Nick Fulk led off with a single, stole second and took third on a single by Liskey. Fulk scored on a single by Howell. Howell and Liskey pulled off a double steal and both scored on a single by Zach Hynes. Hynes later scored on an error for a 7-0 Eagles lead.

Bridgewater added its final run in the seventh when Hynes singled and scored on a double by Hunter Hensley. 

Liskey led the Eagles at the plate with a 3-for-5 effort. He had two doubles, two RBIs and two runs scored. Howell and Hynes were both 2-for-5.

In Game 2, Nick Corbin pitched four shutout innings before the Bishops took advantage of two Bridgewater errors to score three runs in the bottom of the fifth to trim the Eagles lead to 4-3.

The Eagles bullpen made sure the lead would stand up as Jordan Showalter, Ryan Fitzgerald, Steven Woerner and Dillon Via blanked the Bishops over the final four innings. Via, seeing his first action in more than a year, earned the save.

Bridgewater took the early lead with a pair of runs in the second on run-scoring hits by Petock and Tyler Hoffman.

The Eagles added single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Liskey belted a solo homer in the fourth, Fulk drove in a run in the fourth and Howell plated Liskey with a double in the fifth.

Liskey was 2-for-3 with a solo homer and two runs scored in the second game. Howell was 3-for-4 with a double and a run batted in. Hoffman also had two hits for the Eagles.

The Eagles return to action Wednesday when they travel to Fredericksburg to play the University of Mary Washington. First pitch is set for 3 p.m.