Recap: Bridgewater opens ODAC with win

Bridgewater's Corey Armentrout out pitched Roanoke's Jacob McMillian in the ODAC tournament opener.
Bridgewater (Va) athletics photo

Sophomore lefty Corey Armentrout pitched a complete-game five-hitter Thursday to lead the top-seeded Bridgewater (Va.) Eagles to a 3-1 victory over No. 6 Roanoke in the first round of the ODAC baseball tournament at Lynchburg's City Stadium. In other ODAC action it was Washington and Lee over Shenandoah 7-4 and Randolph-Macon 7-5 over Hampden-Sydney.

The No. 8 ranked Marietta Pioneers scored in each of the first five innings to defeat the Wooster Fighting Scots 9-5. Sophomore Mitch Geers led the Marietta offense, going 3-for-4 with a double.

Second-seeded Saint Joseph's (Maine) outlasted third-seeded Suffolk, 8-6, in the second day of the GNAC Baseball Tournament at Larry Mahaney Diamond. The Monks held a 7-1 lead after five frames, but the Rams' bats came to life over the final four innings, a development that transformed a potential blowout into a nail biter for the Royal Blue. Top seeded Johnson and Wales defeated Lasell, 6-3 In GNAC Final Four. The GNAC tournament continues on Saturday, April 27 when they head to Nashua, N.H. for the remainder of the GNAC Championship.  Lasell will take on Suffolk while JWU will face off against St. Joseph's (Maine).

Senior Kevin Herget picked up his sixth win of the season as No. 2 Kean cruised past Richard Stockton by the final of 9-2 in NJAC action. Kean holds a three game lead in the NJAC standings with three games to play. 

In the only game scheduled for Thursday, #4 Austin held their seed over #5 Southwestern, defeating the Pirates 4-3 in the first game of the 2013 SCAC Baseball Championships. With the score knotted at 3-3 in the bottom of the ninth, the 'Roos loaded the bases via two walks and a hit batter before a throwing error from the Southwestern third baseman on a sharply hit grounder by Mason Leech plated the game's winning run.

Benedictine finished off a season sweep of Wheaton (Ill.) with a 10-0 eight-inning victory. Wheaton used 10 pitchers in the contest, and Benedictine grabbed control with a five-run second.

After an 18-day layoff courtesy of Mother Nature, St. Thomas finally got back on the field and swept MIAC rival St. John's 16-3 and 10-1 to run its winning streak to 10 games and remain atop the conference. The No. 4-ranked Tommies, playing its first road games of the season, squared off against the Johnnies on their new artificial turf field, which was ringed with several inches of snow. But the long gap since an April 7 doubleheader sweep of St. Mary's had little effect on the St. Thomas bats as the Tommies had nearly as many extra-base hits (13) on the day as singles (14).

 Sophomore Sean Brooks's sacrifice fly in the top of the eighth plated the winning run that lifted Bridgewater State to a 2-1 nightcap victory.
Bridgewater State athletics photo

Bridgewater State received a pair of RBI each from seniors Tory Buck and Trevor Lawson in the opener to notch a 7-3 triumph and won late in the nightcap to sweep a MASCAC doubleheader from Mass-Maritime at Commodore Hendy Field. With the two wins, the Bears clinch a spot in next week's MASCAC Tournament. The Bears improve to 7-5 in conference play as they are currently in a three-way tie for third place in the standings.

New Jersey City led 1-0 after three innings before No. 19 ranked Ramapo scored five runs in the three middle innings and went on to defeat the Gothic Knights, 6-2, in game one of a NJAC home-and-home series at the Thomas M. Gerrity Athletic Complex. Ramapo had a 10-5 advantage in hits over the Gothic Knights. NJCU was eliminated from NJAC Tournament contention with the loss.

Monmouth broke a seven game skid in convincing fashion, sweeping Grinnell 5-4 and 13-4 Thursday afternoon in Iowa. Ryan Crandell led the Scots offence with three hits in each of the two games.

Washington & Jefferson stormed out to an 11-0 lead after four innings and cruised to a 12-2 PAC victory over Thomas More at Ross Memorial Park. With the triumph, W&J became the first team to secure a spot in the PAC Tournament.

Collecting all nine of their hits and all eight of their runs in the first four innings, the George Fox Bruins jumped out to a six-run lead and held off the visiting Corban in their final home game of the 2013 season, an 8-6 non-conference victory at Morse Field.