Bravehearts

Worcester, MA— Despite hitting four home runs, the Worcester Bravehearts fell to the Westfield Starfires 18-10 at Fitton Field. The loss drops the Bravehearts record to 27-26 and trims their lead on the last playoff spot to two games.

Both teams scored in the second inning, with Westfield striking first when Cam Meyer (Georgetown) scored on an error. The Bravehearts responded with three runs. The inning started with a Zach DeMattio (Wheaton) home run. Later in the inning, Shrewsbury native Nick Martin (Westfield State) would get an RBI by drawing a walk with the bases loaded. Up next, Randy Flores (Franklin Pierce) laced a single to right field to knock in another run.

The Starfires retook the lead with three runs in the third, highlighted by a two-RBI single by Peter DeMaria (Tufts). The Bravehearts would tie the game in the fourth on a Matt Maloney (Dayton) home run. Later in the inning Martin would put Worcester ahead with a two-run home run of his own. Westfield added a run in the sixth on a wild pitch. The Bravehearts scored another run in the sixth on a Flores sacrifice fly.

Westfield would take the lead back in the eighth on a Matt Garbowski (UConn) three-run home run. They would add two more runs in the inning on a Jaden Brown (Iowa Western) single. Worcester battled back in the bottom half of the inning when Martin hit his second two-run home run of the game. But Westfield would go on to score eight runs in the ninth inning to put the game out of reach.

Picking up the win was Westfield pitcher Sean Mahan (Bentley). He pitched 2 innings and struck out four. Getting the loss was DJ Lopes (UMass Boston) who went 1.2 innings, allowing four runs, and striking out one batter.

The Bravehearts will host the Vermont Lake Monsters on Sunday. First pitch from Fitton Field is at 4:00pm.