Worcester, Mass. – Bridgewater State hurler Kelly McCarthy (Burlington, Mass.) homered, had six hits, drove in five runs and won both ends of a doubleheader as the visiting Bears swept a twinbill with Clark University in non-league softball action at O'Brien Field on Friday afternoon.

BSU won the opener 6-0 then took the nightcap, 10-2 in six innings.

The two wins for Bridgewater State pushes their record to 7-5 overall, while the Cougars drop their home opener to slip to 5-7.

Both teams are back in action on Saturday with Clark traveling to Brandeis and the Bears playing their home opener against Wheaton.

Game 1: Bridgewater State 6, Clark University 0

The Bears jumped on Clark starter Sami West (Gonic, N.H.) early, pushing three runs across in the first and two more in the second to take a commanding 5-0 lead enroute to the shutout win.

Courtney Leddy (Saugus, Mass.) led off the game with a double and then came around to score on a Tara McCann (Fall River, Mass.) single. McCarthy then followed that up with her second homerun of the season to left center to give Bridgewater State a 3-0 first inning edge.

Clark had a chance to get some runs back in the bottom of the first after Jocie Orangio (Maynard, Mass.) led off with a single and then moved to third on an Alyssa Wright (Manchester, N.H.) double to left center.

McCarthy was able to buckle down, however, getting a strike out, a foul out and a line out to escape the inning unscathed.

The Bears added more in the second when McCann drove in a pair with a single up the middle and then tacked on an insurance run in the seventh when McCann delivered an RBI base hit.

After giving up two hits in the first, McCarthy was dominant the rest of the way, retiring 18 of the final 19 batters she faced, including the last 13. Overall she yielded just three hits and struck out eight without allowing a walk.

McCann and McCarthy did most of the damage for Bridgewater State, going a combined 6-for-10 at the plate and driving in all six runs.

Meanwhile, Clark's three hits in the opener came from Orangio, Wright and Lauren Mackey (Dublin, N.H.).

Game 2: Bridgewater State 10, Clark University 2

The Bears used a huge third inning in which they sent 12 batters to the plate and scored seven runs on seven hits to complete the twinbill sweep.

Clark actually held a 1-0 lead after a bases loaded fielder's choice by Rachel Kraytenberg (Londonderry, N.H.) scored Orangio who made an excellent slide to get under the tag of BSU backstop Tabitha Domeij (Westborough, Mass.).

Meanwhile, Cougar starter Brenna Foley (Charlton, Mass.) was in command, retiring the first six batters she faced and didn't allow a hit until the top of the fourth when McCann led off with a double. That hit ignited a Bear offensive attack that saw five different players drive in runs with base hits and chase Foley from the game.

Clark tried to claw back in the fifth when Orangio singled, advanced to second on a groundout and then scored on Mackey's single to left.

Bridgewater State put the game away with three more runs in the top of the sixth, highlighted by RBI singles by McCarthy and Krystina Flaherty (Burlington, Mass.).

McCarthy was strong again in the circle and at the plate for the Bears. She had three hits and three RBI and went all six innings, allowing six hits and two earned runs while striking out five.

Flaherty and Samantha LoPilato (Medford, Mass.) each had two hits for BSU, while Leddy scored twice.

For Clark, Orangio, Mackey and Kraytenberg all had two hits.