But did they beat the spread?

Here’s a score you don’t see every day:

Bridgewater State 57, Newbury College 1.

That would be baseball.

That would be a 6 1/2 -inning game played Monday in Bridgewater, Mass.

That would be an NCAA Division III record for runs by one team in a game.

Bridgewater also set single-game records with 54 runs batted in, 44 hits and biggest margin of victory -- eclipsing the previous standard set by Marietta in 1999 with a 48-0 triumph over La Roche.

That would be La Roche College of Pittsburgh, not long-retired former big-league pitcher Dave LaRoche.

That LaRoche is now 58.

Even he could have held Bridgewater under 57.

Trivia time

What is the NCAA Division I baseball record for victory margin?

Some favor

More about a game that should have been played at Heinz 57 Field: Newbury is playing its first season of Division III varsity baseball after being elevated from club-team status.

The Nighthawks are 0-4 so far.

Bridgewater (8-6) reached the Division III Final Four in 1996.

The day after the blowout, Bridgewater Athletic Director John Harper took a break from fielding angry phone calls to publicly defend his coach, Rick Smith, from contentions of poor sportsmanship.

“That’s not what we’re about,” Harper told Southof Boston.com. “And hopefully, most people who know Rick personally will believe that, but some people won’t.”

Harper said Bridgewater had scheduled Newbury’s newbie program as a “personal favor” and argued against claims that Smith ran up the score.

“Was it done purposely? No,” Harper said. “Was it poor sportsmanship on purpose? No. People see the score and come to their own conclusions. It shouldn’t have happened, but it did. We’re not bad people. It’s very unfortunate.”

When the

name fits

The San Antonio Express-News came up with the following anagram to summarize the current plight of Don Imus, who received a two-week suspension for making racial slurs on the air about Rutgers women’s basketball players: “So in mud.”

We won’t count the bad ones

Phoenix Coyotes center Jeremy Roenick found himself on ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption” on Tuesday, a strange place for any NHL player to be these days.

“This must be a leap year,” Roenick said, “because you guys are talking hockey.”

Roenick appeared on a segment called “Five Good Minutes” -- which, ironically enough, was the general scouting report on Roenick after every game he played for the Kings.

Trivia answer

Nebraska defeated Chicago State, 50-3, on March 19, 1999.

And finally

Jay Leno, on the bad weather wreaking havoc with the major-league schedule:

“Some games are canceled today because of snow. In fact, in Boston today, it was so cold, Ted Williams scored three runs.”

mike.penner@latimes.com