Bridgewater, Va. – The Bridgewater College baseball team played host to McDaniel for a doubleheader early Saturday afternoon but fell 13-11. 

The Eagles came into Saturday’s matchup 0-2 on the year and were looking to snag their first win of the season. 

Junior Reid Long got the start on the mound for the Eagles. Long would go four innings, giving up six runs on five hits with four strikeouts. 

McDaniel struck first with a sacrifice fly to put the Green Terror up 1-0 early. The Eagles came back with some scoring of their own with an RBI single from senior Jefferey Snider to score fellow senior Jarret Biesecker and tie things up at 1-1. 

Bridgewater continued to add to their total with back-to-back sacrifice flies from junior Brandon Hartman and senior Jonathan Sexton to stretch the lead to 3-1.

Things started to get shaky for the Eagles defense in the top of the second inning with five runs to score on three hits. This gave the Green Terror a 6-3 advantage heading into the bottom of the second. 

BC continued to battle back with a nice one-out single from senior Timothy Hopson. Two straight walks for the Eagles loaded the bases and senior Hunter Clever’s two run RBI double brought the lead down to one. 

A scoreless third and top of the fourth led to the Eagles knotting it up at 6-6 with an RBI double from Hartman to score Biesecker once again. 

“We are an extremely veteran team when it comes to our offense and defense and it’s been great to see guys swinging the bat well,” said Sexton. 

McDaniel tacked on two more runs in the fifth to take an 8-6 lead over the Eagles. Once again,nBridgewater kept their bats hot with a ground out to shortstop and another sac fly to make it 8-8. 

The BC defense collapsed in the top of the seventh allowing five runs on two hits, including a grand slam to stretch the lead to 13-8.

Bridgewater found some late inning magic started by responding with a bases-loaded walk from Sexton, which allowed Snider to score. Senior Collin Reid drove in a pair of Eagles on a two-run single to cap off the seventh and make it 13-11. 

The deficit was too much for the Eagles to overcome with the score remaining unchanged the rest of the way through scoreless eighth and ninth innings. With the loss, the Eagles fall to 0-3 on their 2023 campaign. 

“Moving forward on the season, we’re going to have to trust each other and the coaches if we want to be in the running to win the ODAC,” said Tharp. 

Bridgewater will be back in action on Wednesday, Feb. 25 against Christopher Newport on the road.