Bridgewater, VA – The Bridgewater baseball team was able to keep close most of the game against No.17 Shenandoah on April 9, before ultimately losing 6-5.
In the bottom of the first inning, fifth-year senior Jeffrey Snider and sophomore Nick Stavros both got walked. Next, Snider scored from second and Stavros moved to third on a single hit by senior Brandan Hartman into right field. After the opening inning, Bridgewater led 2-0 thanks to a play made by fifth-year senior Jonathan Sexton that allowed Stavros to reach home plate.
Sexton said, “It was a strong start, and it showed we came to play.”
In the second inning, Shenandoah struck back when Haden Madagan and Brody Pickette took two-out walks to put runners on first and second. After scoring both runners with a double to the gap in left-center field, Luke Keister came around to score on a Frankie Ritter single to put the Hornets ahead, 3-2.
During the home side of the inning, the Eagles loaded the bases, causing an early pitching change. The Hornets were able to make a double play leaving two runners stranded and got out of the inning still up 3-2.
The Eagles took the lead once more in the third inning on a single by Hartman to right-center field. After three frames, Sexton put BC ahead 4-3 with a home run over the wall in left field. The Eagles lead lasted until Shenandoah came up to bat in the 6th inning, Pearce Bucher reached base on a single, and then found his way to third base, and then home off of a sacrifice fly ball.
While the Eagles fought their way back ahead in the home half of the same session, the game remained back and forth. After a single to right, freshman Christian Harris advanced to second on a sac bunt by freshman Nick Dawson. After Stavros hit an RBI single to right field, the rookie, Dawson, advanced to third on a fly out to center. 5–4 was the Eagles’ new advantage.
Senior Tristan Gordon said, “We were playing them as tough as anybody could play them.”
The nationally ranked Hornets responded with a big eighth inning.Andrew Falk was able to get a lead off single and then followed it up with stealing second base. Madagan reached on a fielding mistake and advanced to third base on Connor Houser’s pinch-hit, RBI double, which brought him in to score. With the bases loaded, Madagan scored to give the Hornets a 6-5 lead on a ground out.
The Eagles were able to get a runner in scoring position in the eighth and a man on first base in the ninth but weren’t able to capitalize on them, leaving both runners stranded and lost the game 6-5.
Since that game the Bridgewater Baseball team has won 4 out of their last six games, and with two games up and coming, Bridgewater looks to carry this success into the ODAC playoffs.
Bridgewater’s next game is tomorrow, April 27, against Hampden-Sydney.
