Worcester, MA - The Worcester State Lancer baseball team defeated the Falcons of Fitchburg State Thursday night under the lights at Tivnan Field by the score of, 12-1, to advance to the winners bracket of the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference baseball tournament. The Lancers used a 14-hit attack, including five homeruns, and a dominant, complete game, pitching performance from Bear Dunn (Charlton, MA) to secure the victory. The win improves the Lancers to 26-10 on the season, while Fitchburg drops to 24-9.

Dunn struck out the side in the bottom of the first inning and the Lancers’ bats went to work. Worcester State scored four runs in the bottom of the first with the big hits coming on back to back homers from junior Dan Walker (Templeton, MA), who hit a two-run blast to left, and Jeremy Foskett (Charlton, MA), who homered over the centerfield fence.

The Lancers added five more in the bottom of the third inning to take a 9-0 lead. Worcester State went back to back for the second time with Dunn leading off the inning with a blast to center and freshman Kyle Oksanish (S. Grafton, MA) going deep to right-center.

Fitchburg State got on the board in the top of the fourth when Justin Schultz (Pepperell, MA) homered to right field but that would be all the offense the Falcons could muster.

The Lancers added three more in the bottom of the fifth inning with Dunn hitting his second homer of the game.

Dunn was tremendous on the hill for Worcester State. The junior went 9 innings scattering 4 hits and striking out 5 Falcons. He faced only three batters above the minimum in improving his record to 3-2 on the year. Fitchburg State freshman, Tommy Motta (Freetown, MA), took his first loss of the season as he falls to 5-1.

Next up for Worcester State is a match up with Westfield State College who defeated Bridgewater, 7-5, this afternoon, on Saturday at Bridgewater State College slated for a 1:00 pm start. Fitchburg is faced with an elimination game Saturday morning as the face-off against Bridgewater State at 10:00 am.

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