BRIDGEWATER, Va. – The Bridgewater College baseball team defeated Mary Baldwin with a score of 8-5 on Wednesday afternoon.

The Basics

• Final Score: Bridgewater – 8, Mary Baldwin – 5
• Records: Bridgewater (12-5); Mary Baldwin (3-11)

How It Happened

• The Fighting Squirrels took the lead right out of the gate scoring in the top of the first. Colby Cheatham drove in Noah Kessler on a sac fly.
• Bridgewater responded with two runs of its own in the bottom of the frame with RBI singles from Jeffrey Snider and Kevin Navedo.
• MBU grabbed the lead back in the third on another RBI from Cheatham.
• The Eagles offense came to life in the bottom of the third scoring five runs. Snider drove in Jacob Grabeel on a single to center to start the rally. Brandan Hartman drove in Snider on an RBI single to left field. Brett Tharp later grounded out but drove in Navedo on the play. BC continued its rally loading the bases for Jarret Biesecker who walked allowing Hartman to score from third. The bases remained loaded as the Eagles batted around bringing Grabeel up next. Grabeel walked and Timothy Hopson scored to bring the Eagles lead to 7-2.
• In the bottom of the fourth, Hopson singled to right field driving in Navedo to make it a six-run lead.
• The Fighting Squirrels fought back scoring once in the fifth and twice in the sixth but couldn't muster enough offense to get within three of the lead leaving the final score 8-5.

Match Notes

• Elijah Dunlap earned his first victory of the year in relief for Robbie Stoss. Stoss went two innings, Dunlap, Tanner Ray, and Ryan Costello each went one. Bryce Masters then took over for 0.1 innings and Tucker Hrasky went 1.2. Hunter Clever finished off Mary Baldwin with two strong innings and earned the save.
• Clever, Stoss, Dunlap and Ray each struck out two batters.
• Snider, Navedo, Hartman, and Hopson each had two hits.

Up Next

• Baseball is back this Saturday, March 19 and will open conference play hosting Virginia Wesleyan at noon.