SPRINGFIELD – Westfield State sophomore Nate Barnes tossed a dominant six innings in his first collegiate start, allowing just one run on two hits and fanning eight Springfield College batters as the Owls posted an 8-2 win over the Pride on Thursday afternoon.
Westfield State exploded for five runs in the top of the ninth inning to break open what had been a close game.
With the loss, Springfield falls to 2-14 on the season, while Westfield State improves to 11-3.
Barnes, who had a stellar high school career at Westfield High School, was seeing his first varsity pitching action. He had missed all of last season with arm problems and had thrown in a B squad game in Florida earlier this spring. He yielded just a solo home run in the second inning in earning his first win of the season.
Chris Servello (Easton, Mass.), Justin Thomson (Yarmouth Port, Mass.) and Pete Liimatainen (West Barnstable, Mass.) each tossed an inning for the Owls to finish up the game.
Junior Jack Baldwin (Westhampton, Mass.) got the nod for Springfield, pitching 7.0 innings, giving up 11 hits, three runs, while striking out two. Freshman Jack Weinberger (Sunapee, N.H.) came on in relief, pitching 1.2 innings, giving up three hits, four runs and striking out one. Luke Brown (Winter Garden, Fla.) came in to get the final out, a strikeout.
Westfield State struck in the top of the first inning when Stephen Brown (Harwich, Mass.) cracked a single to right-center that scored Tim Santilli (Southbridge, Mass.) from second base to give the Owls a 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the second, Poulin blasted a ball down the left-field line that cleared the fence to help the Pride pull even at one.
In the top of the fifth inning, Pat McWilliams doubled, before moving to third on a single from Santilli. The next batter, Danny DiMatteo (Dennis, Mass.) then blasted a shot to center, that was caught, but it scored McWilliams to give the Owls a one-run lead.
Westfield State added to its lead in the sixth, when Kyle Murphy (Westfield, Mass.) beat out a double play, scoring Tyler Adams (West Barnstable, Mass.) to extend the Owls’ lead to two. Poulin then helped the Pride cut its deficit to one when he pulled a single through the short stop and third baseman, scoring Billy Peterson(Wareham, Mass.) from third to make it 3-2, Westfield State.
Brown picked up his second RBI of the game in the top of the ninth inning, as he smacked a single to right, scoring Connor Sheridan (South Hadley, Mass.) from second to give the Owls a 4-2 lead. With the bases loaded, Dan Whigham (Barre, Mass.) hit a base-clearing double to push Westfield State’s lead to five, before Dan McCormack (Shelton, Conn.) walked, scoring Whigham from third to make it 8-2, Owls.
The Owls game tomorrow againt Becker has been postponed to give the team an off day. Westfield will be back in action this weekend, hosting Framingham State in a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m. in what will be the Owls home opener.
