BRIDGEWATER, Mass. – Playing its second game in as many days, the Suffolk baseball team rebounded from a setback a day ago with a 6-2 triumph over Bridgewater State Wednesday afternoon at Alumni Park.
Suffolk (12-4) pushed across three runs in the top of the second inning despite hitting only one ball out of the infield. Jon Lapolla and Jake Frasca reached on infield singles and Drew Carter walked to load the bases. Kevin Belskie played Lapolla with an RBI ground out and Julien PLana followed with an RBI single to center to score Frasca. After a pop up in front of the plate was dropped, Carter raced home as the Bears (6-9) threw down to second to get the force out.
Frasca added an RBI single in the third to give the Rams a 4-0 cushion.
The Bears got on the board with an unearned run in the bottom half of the inning. With one out, Scott O'Brien lined a base hit into right field, moved to third when Ryan Feeney reached on an error and scored on Travis Tichie's two-out RBI single.
Bridgewater cut the deficit to two in the bottom of the fifth. Back-to-back singles by O'Brien and Ryan Kelleher followed by a wild pitch put runners on second and third with one out. O'Brien then scored on Fenney's RBI ground out.
Suffolk tacked on two more runs in the top of the ninth inning on a pair of RBI singles by Rob Marks and Lapolla.
Tim Conroy picked up the win on the mound for the Rams. Conroy (2-0) allowed two runs (one earned) on five hits over six innings of work with a pair of strikeouts. Chuck Gibson pitched the seventh and eighth innings, respectively and retired all six batters he faced including a set of punch outs, while Cal Carroll worked a one-twho-three ninth to close it out.
Lapolla (2-for-4), Frasca (2-for-5) and Sean Cameron (2-for-4) finished with two hits apiece to lead the Rams' ten hit attack. Marks reached safely three times in five plate appearances as the senior was also hit by a pitch twice.
O'Brien went 2-for-3 at the plate as he was the only Bear to finish with multiple hits. Feene (1-for-4) extended his season-long hitting streak to 15 games with a lead-off single in the bottom of the first.
Thomas Protentis (1-2) suffered the loss on the hill for Bridgewater as he pitched into the sixth inning, giving up four runs on five hits in five-plus innings. He walked three, fanned one and hit three batters. Kevin Bresciani and Shane Surette combined to work three innings of scoreless relief.
All told, BSU hurlers hit fiver batters, walked four and threw a pair of wild pitches. The Rams, who left eight runners on, stole five bases in the contest and were caught twice. Bridgewater's defense turned three double players.
In upcoming action, Suffolk heads to Curry tomorrow for its final non-conference tune-up before the weekend. The Rams' third game in three days is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m.