Baseball to Host NCAA Regional for Second Time in Three Years

By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. — For the second time in three years, Bridgewater State University will be hosting the start of the NCAA Division III baseball tournament.

The Bears, winners of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference championship for a fourth straight season, will entertain a four-team regional this week at Alumni Park.

Fourth-seeded BSU (30-13) will open against nationally-ranked and top-seeded Endicott College (38-4), the same matchup the Bears had to begin the 2023 regional.

The game will take place Friday at 10 a.m. to open the three-day tourney.

The other game in the double-elimination tournament pits nationally-ranked Concordia University of Texas (33-11) against Oswego State of New York (27-13) on Friday at 1:30 p.m.

There will be three games on Saturday starting at 8:30 a.m., noon and 3:30 p.m. with the championship round Sunday starting at 11 a.m.

There are 64 teams in the NCAAs, including 41 automatic qualifiers and 23 at-large selections.

BSU received a berth after coming out of the loser’s bracket to win three straight games and earn the MASCAC championship Sunday.

The team gathered in a conference room at the Tinsley Center Monday afternoon to learn who it would be facing in the NCAAs.

It will be the Bears’ 18th appearance in the NCAAs dating back to 1989 and fourth under coach Greg Zackrison.

BSU defeated Endicott, 4-2, in the 2023 tourney opener behind the pitching of Matt Josselyn, then lost to Johnson & Wales and were eliminated in a rematch with Endicott, 6-0.

The Gulls are ranked No. 3 in the D3baseball.com national poll and No. 4 in the American Baseball Coaches Association poll.

Endicott went 132-23 with two trips to the Division III College World Series the past three seasons before losing just four of 42 games this spring.

The Gulls are the top scoring team nationally in Division III with 486 runs and have seven starters batting at least .343.

Senior Joey Frammartino (North Reading, Mass.) leads the way at .394 with junior AJ Hamm (Shrewsbury, Mass.) at .390.

Graduate student John Mulready (Peabody, Mass.) is batting .372, just ahead of sophomore Cade Bernardo (Glenmont, N.Y.) at .370.

Senior Danny MacDougall (Taunton, Mass.) is at .365 with senior Zach Stephenson (Mansfield, Mass.) hitting .357 and graduate student Kyle Grabowski (Westfield, Mass.) at .343.

The Gulls are batting .351 with with 63 home runs, led by senior Robbie Wladkowski (Norwood, Mass.) with nine and MacDougall and Stephenson with eight each.

The pitching staff is led by sophomore Charlie Hale (Brookline, N.Y.), wkho is 11-1 with a 2.13 earned run average, and junior Evan Scully (Maynard, Mass.), who is 9-0 with a 2.17 ERA.

The Bears are led offensively by senior second baseman Scott Emerson (Peabody, Mass.), the program’s all-time hits leader with 243 who is batting .395 with 10 doubles, three triples and five home runs.

Junior Ryan Flaherty (Duxbury, Mass.) broke the BSU single-season record for home runs with 17 and RBI with 64 and is hitting .299.

Freshman Jamie Luna (Warwick, R.I.) is hitting .390 and senior Kevin Lindsay (East Bridgewater, Mass.) is batting .356.

Senior Philip Messina (Dunkirk, N.Y.) has seven homers and is hitting .331 while senior Brendan Flaven (Taunton, Mass.) has a .329 average and is a transfer from Endicott.

Junior Trey Yesu (Monson, Mass.) and senior Cameron Breault (Buzzards Bay, Mass.) are the top winners with five victories apiece on the mound.

Concordia will arrive in Massachusetts from Texas ranked 19th in the ABCA national poll and 20th in the D3baseball.com polls.

The Tornadoes went 24-6 in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference and lost to No. 1 ranked Trinity, 2-1, in the conference championship game, receiving an at-large bid to the NCAAs.

Oswego State went 14-4 in the State University of New York Athletic Conference and 1-2 in the conference tournament.

Oswego also received an at-large bid.

The winner of the regional hosted by Bridgewater State plays in a Super Regional against the winner of the Wisconsin-Lacrosse May 23-24.