Bickford's Walk-Off Single In Bottom Of The Tenth Gives Baseball A 4-3 Senior Night Win Over Wilmington (Del.)

Bridgeport, Conn.-Senior Tim Bickford's (Wallingford, Conn.) one-out, bases loaded single in the bottom of the tenth inning drove home Tyler Gambardella (West Haven, Conn.), who opened the inning with a triple to right field to lift the University of Bridgeport baseball to a 4-3 extra innings win over the highly-ranked Wilmington (Del.) University Wildcats on Senior Night on Monday.  With the win, UB is now 20-21 overall.  The Wildcats are now 30-10.

Bickford's hit made a winner of classmate Brian O'Keefe (Milford, Conn.), who worked two innings of scoreless and hitless relief with three strike outs and one walk.  O'Keefe, who is now 3-3 on the season, moves into the top spot on Bridgeport's career wins list with 13, breaking tie with several players.

Senior Clayton Morris (Sharpsburg, Ga.) started the game on the mound for the Purple Knights and worked eight strong innings in which he allowed only two earned runs on six hits with two strikeouts; while walking only one.

Trailing 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning, UB tied things up a 3-3 on a clutch, two-out, bases loaded single to right by junior Dave Egeland (Toms River, N.J.).

Sophomore Dylan Steigerwald (Holbrook, N.Y.) drove in Bridgeport's first run with a third inning RBI ground out.

Freshman Ben Torres (Miami, Fla.) had two hits, one of which was a double, to help lead the UB eight-hit offensive attack on the night.

Bridgeport also got good news on Monday night, as with a Queens (N.Y.) win over Molloy, the Purple Knights have qualified for the 2015 East Coast Conference Championship Tournament that will begin on Thursday, May 7th.  UB will join Dowling, St. Thomas Aquinas and LIU Post in the tournament.  Seeding will be determined by the outcomes of this weekend's conference series.

Bridgeport will begin its four-game weekend series this Friday at St. Thomas Aquinas with a single, nine-inning game.  First pitch is slated for 3:30 p.m.