DUDLEY, Mass. (April 6) – The Westfield State baseball team cranked out 18 hits including home runs from three players en route to a 14-4 non-conference victory over Nichols Tuesday afternoon. The Owls, ranked seventh in the most recent New England College baseball coaches' poll, improve to 14-4 overall, while Nichols falls to 8-11.

George Sergi (Blackstone, Mass.) hit his second home run of the season for the Bison, finishing the day 2-for-3, while Dylan Courtney (Ware, Mass.) was 2-for-2 with an RBI late in the game.

It was a top-to-bottom effort for the Owls as all but one spot in the lineup crossed the plate, led by Jeff Ackerman, who had a 2-for-4 day at the plate, including a home run, a two-run double and three runs scored. Matt Kelly went 3-for-4 with a solo shot, an RBI double and a pair of runs scored. Will Garner hit a first-pitch, two-run homer in the ninth in a pinch-hit situation.

Home runs from Ackerman and Kelly gave the Owls a 2-0 lead after three, and Westfield pushed another across in the fifth in a two-out rally courtesy of an RBI single from Kevin Lyons in the cleanup spot. Nichols reliever Cameron Leduc (Burrillville, R.I.) settled down and struck out the final batter to end the inning with the bases loaded.

The Owls struck again with two outs in the sixth, this time plating a pair of runs on four consecutive hits, including RBI hits from Kelly and Ben Campbell for a 5-0 lead.

A bases-loaded walk edged the Owls ahead to 7-0 in the top of the seventh before Sergi ripped a home run over the left field fence to get the Bison aboard in the bottom of the frame. Owls' starter Jesse Vermeersch fanned the next batter and then induced a groundout to end the inning.

A costly error in the eighth inning set up the Owls for six runs in the frame. Ackerman drilled a bases-loaded double to send a pair across, and then Blair dropped a high sac fly to center to plate the third. Three consecutive singles and an error accounted for the final three runs before Bison reliever JC LeBarron (Bennington, Vt.) struck out the final batter.

A Zac Johnson (Wakefield, R.I.) sac fly in the bottom half of the inning got one more on the scoreboard for the Bison, but a lineout double-play to the pitcher ended the inning for Nichols.

Garner's first-pitch homer in the ninth capped the scoring for the Owls and the Bison got two more back in the bottom of the inning on three hits and RBI from Cale LaCasse (Killingly, Conn.) and Courtney.

Vermeersch fanned six and held the Bison to three hits through seven innings to improve to 2-0 on the season.

Nichols starter Michael Sannicandro (Upton, Mass.) took the loss (0-1) with two runs on five hits through the first three innings. Nichols then used Leduc, AJ Vadala (North Attleboro, Mass.), Dan Vreeland (Becket, Mass.) and LeBarron to finish out the game.

Nichols faces Eastern Nazarene on Thursday in Dudley for a rescheduled The Commonwealth Coast Conference doubleheader at 2 p.m. Westfield State travels to Albertus Magnus Thursday for a single non-conference game at 4 p.m.

Box Score