After winning their respective first round contests on Thursday afternoon, the Fitchburg State Falcons and Westfield State Owls move on to the MASCAC Baseball Quarterfinals which will be played on Friday afternoon.

Westfield State 1, Bridgewater State 0 Box Score

WESTFIELD, Mass. -- The two starters staged a stellar pitching duel, but in the end relief pitching decided the outcome as Westfield State's Tyler Beach (Quincy, Mass.) scored on a 2-out wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning to give Westfield a 1-0 win over Bridgewater State in the first round of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference baseball tournament at Bud and Jim Hagan Field on Thursday afternoon.
 
Fourth-seeded Westfield State improves to 19-18 on the season, and advances to play at #1 seed Salem State tomorrow afternoon as the tournament begins its double-elimination final four.   Fifth-seeded Bridgewater's season ends at 16-19.
 
Westfield State freshman starting pitcher John Gegetskas (Sport and Medical Science/Windsor, Conn.), the league's rookie of the year, tossed seven scoreless innings, while Bridgewater's Shane Surrette (Whittier Tech/Haverhill, Mass.) dueled him pitch-for-pitch until the decisive ninth inning.
 
In the bottom of the ninth, Beach led off with solid single through the right side, and was sacrificed to second by senior SS Connor Sheridan (South Hadley, Mass.).  Thomas Protentis (Appoquonet/Lakeville, Mass.) relieved Surrette, and then Beach took third when senior C Evan Moorhouse (Westfield, Mass.) hit a Baltimore chop back to Protentis.
 
With two out, Beach finally scored on a two-strike wild pitch that went to the screen to give the Owls the walk-off win and advance them in the tournament.
 
Gegetskas closed the book with four hits and three strikeouts through seven scoreless innings. Tyler Tongue (Minnechaug/Hampden, Mass.) tossed a dominant 1-2-3 eighth with two strikeouts, and Owls senior closer Pete Liimatainen (1-3) came in to a scoreless tie in the top of the ninth and worked around a 2-out base hit with some help from Moorhouse, who picked the runner off first base to end the inning.
 
Surrette (5-3) worked 8.1 innings, scattering seven hits and striking out six.
 
Westfield was led by a pair of hits from senior LF Tyler Adams (West Barnstable/Barnstable, Mass.) including a double.  The Owls got two hits and two walks from the DH slot, a hit and a walk each for Stephen Brown (Monomoy/Harwich, Mass.) andAnthony Crowley (Bellingham).
 
Keagan Austin-MacInnis (Coyle and Cassidy/Lakeville, Mass.) and Brandon Hoyle (Bridgewater, Mass.) each had a single and a double for the Bears.

Fitchburg State 8, Framingham State 5 Box Score

FITCHBURG, Mass. - Sophomore Luis Ortiz picked up three RBI, and scored two runs, on a 2-for-4 day, as the Fitchburg State University Falcons defeated the Framingham State University Rams, 8-5, in Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) baseball tournament action at Riccards Field. 

Sophomore southpaw Tommy Parsons went seven strong innings en route to his sixth victory of the season, allowing one earned run and scattering three hits while fanning five. 

For Framingham State junior Manny Powers and senior Zach Kirby each completed four innings of work with Kirby being charged with six runs off four Fitchburg hits.

In the bottom of the first Fitchburg State squandered a golden opportunity to get on the board with runners on second and third and no outs before Framingham State turned a double play, and closed out the inning on a fly-out to right field to end the threat.

The Green and Gold took the lead with two outs and the bases jammed in the bottom of the fourth when Ortiz hit one hard on the ground and into the grass in left to score a pair for Fitchburg (2-0).

Framingham State quickly cut the deficit in half in the top of the fifth as freshman Kyle Lippert plated classmate Aaron Williams with a single through the left-side of the infield for the Rams first score of the game (2-1).

After Parsons stranded the tying run at second base in the top of the sixth, Fitchburg State went back to work offensively scoring four in the bottom of the frame with sophomore Andrew Currie supplying the big hit of the inning – a two-rbi triple out of the reach of the right fielder to increase the gap for the Falcons (6-1).

Framingham State scored a run in each of the seventh and eighth innings (6-3) before Fitchburg State added late insurance to its lead in the bottom of the eighth as shortstop Andrew Mooney hit a ball up the middle to score a pair of Falcons (8-3).

The Rams made some noise in the top of the ninth as senior Ryan Connolly picked up his first hit of the game to score Anthony Venuti. Framingham went on to add another run when Manny Powers grounded out to shortstop to score the second of the inning, but not before recording the second out.

After walking the next batter junior Tyler Smith went into record the last out of the inning as pinch-hitter RC Goodman grounded out to Smith to end the game with the final score 8-3.

Fitchburg State picked up 10 hits as a team with Ortiz and Currie picking up two hits apiece. Six other members of the starting lineup added a hit in the victory.

Framingham State freshman Anthony Venuti fueled the Rams offense with a 3-for-5 performance and a pair of doubles while driving in one runner.

Third-seeded Fitchburg State (18-18) will move on to the next round of the MASCAC tournament, traveling to Mass Maritime on Friday May 6^th to take on the second-seeded Buccaneers with first pitch slated for 3:00 p.m.  

Courtesy of Fitchburg State and Westfield State Sports Information