Jonathan Mason and Alex Nuttycombe belted homes and lefty Corey Armentrout silenced the Eastern Mennonite bats as Bridgewater College rolled to a 14-1 ODAC victory Wednesday afternoon.
The Eagles took the lead with a run in the bottom of the first. With two outs, Bryan Sanderson walked and stole second. Andrew Hacker then stroked a triple to right-center field to put the Eagles on to, 1-0.
The Royals threatened to put together a big inning against Armentrout in the second. Beau Banglesdorf led off with a double and Dylan Smith followed with a run-scoring single to left to tie the score at 1-1. A walk to Jonathan Estrada and a bunt single by B.J. Mortimer loaded the bases with no outs. Joshua Martin then flew out to right and BC’s Mason threw a perfect strike to the plate to nail Smith who tried to score from third. Armentrout then retired Phillip Jordan on a grounder to second to escape the inning with the scored tied at 1-1.
The Eagles took control with four runs in the bottom of the second off EMU starter Andy Richter. With one out, Zach Hynes doubled and moved to third on a single by Jay Thompson. Hynes then scored on a groundout by Derrick Walling, giving the Eagles a 2-1 lead. Thompson scored on a single by Devon Snow and then Snow moved into scoring position by stealing second. Snow scored on a single by Nick Fulk, making the score 4-1. Fulk then swiped second and scored on a single by Sanderson for a 5-1 BC lead.
Bridgewater added three more in the third to take an 8-1 lead. Nuttycombe led off with a single and Mason followed with a long homer to right, making the score 7-1. Hynes singled to right, moved to second on a groundout and took third on a wild pitch. Walling then hit a long sacrifice fly to left-center to score Hynes for an 8-1 Eagles lead.
The offense continued to roll with two more runs in the fifth and three in the sixth.
Nuttycombe led off the fifth with a walk, stole second and scored on Mason’s double to make it 9-1. Mason took third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly by Hynes for a 10-1 BC lead.
Sanderson walked with one out in the sixth and Hacker singled to right. Nuttycombe then homered to left-center field off EMU reliever Chris DE Wald as the lead grew to 13-1.
The Eagles added their final run in the eighth when Matt Maher walked and scored on a double by Nuttycombe for the final 14-1 margin of victory.
After escaping the shaky second inning, Armentrout dominated the conference’s top hitting team. EMU entered the game hitting .346, but managed just one run on five hits in eight innings against Armentrout. The BC lefty struck out nine and walked just one.
Nuttycombe led the 14-hit attack with a 3-for-4 day at the plate and four RBIs. Mason was 2-for-5 with three RBIs while Hacker and Hynes added two hits each.
The Eagles also had a big day on the base paths with six stolen bases in six attempts. Sanderson and Nuttycombe each had two steals.
The Eagles improved to 24-10 overall and 10-4 in the ODAC. EMU dropped to 10-21, 3-9 in the ODAC.
Bridgewater returns to action Saturday when it hosts Guilford for a conference doubleheader. First pitch is set for noon.
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