Bridgewater, VA – On March 13, the Bridgewater baseball team improved their record to 12-6 with their win over Mary Baldwin.
Early in the first inning, fifth-year Jonathan Sexton singled to center field to spark the Eagles’ offensive rally, scoring their first run. Fifth-year Jeffrey Snider was brought home by freshman Christian Harris, who scored another run by squarely hitting a ball into right field. After two outs in the first, BC led 3-0 when sophomore Spencer Sigmon rushed the throw of the short stop into a fielding error.
In the start of the second inning, JT Stevenson found open grass in center field to give the Fighting Squirrels offense a response and trimmed the score to two, 3-1. After striking out the next two batters, sophomore Jaden Isidro was able to end the inning.
In the bottom of the second inning, sophomore Nick Stavros grounded a hard ball to second base, allowing freshman Nick Dawson to reach home plate and score another run for Bridgewater. In the third inning, Mary Baldwin was able to smash a fly ball over the wall for a home run to give them two runs for the scoreboard, making the score 4-3.
The Eagles responded with a big offensive tear in the bottom of the fourth. The Eagles’ offense was able to knock in five runs. Snider hit a double to drive in a run, which was followed by Harris hitting a single down the third base line to drive in another run to make the score 6-3 in favor of the Eagles. Sophomore Isaac Sumpter and Dawson were both able to hit balls down to the left side of the field and then the final run was scored when junior Lucas Bauer was hit by a pitch. The lead was 9-3 going into the top of the fifth inning after a strong scoring outing from the Eagles.
Maintaining his dominant play at the plate, Snider first singled to right field before turning around and scoring on a double from Sexton. Sigmon increased the advantage to 11-3 when he hit a fly ball that allowed Harris to tag up from third.
In their half of the seventh inning, Noah Kessler popped a ball through the right side to send the runner home from third base, giving the Fighting Squirrels another run. By executing a flawless 6-4-3 double play to end the inning, BC was able to escape with strong defense.
Harris hit a sacrifice fly to right field in the bottom of the eighth inning, allowing the runner to tag up from third base as Bridgewater kept up the offensive pressure. To add another run to the score, senior Tristan Gordon went up to the plate and smacked a single through the hole between the shortstop and second base. Sigmon’s drive to right center field scored the Eagles’ last run, bringing the score to 14–4.
MBU picked up a run in the top of the ninth after an error from the BC defense, but it was not enough as Bridgewater cruised to a 14-5 victory. Bridgewater extended their winning record, with their next game against Roanoke College on April 13th
Since that game against Mary Baldwin, Bridgewater went on to win 6 out of their next ten games, with multiple players hitting over .300 batting average. The Eagles have multiple home run hitters in their line up, with 8 players hitting home runs this season. Bridgewater looks to keep pushing for the ODAC playoffs and possibly the ODAC championship as well.
