BOX
SCORE
BABSON PARK, Mass. - The University of Southern Maine hit four
home runs at the plate and received 6 1/3 outstanding innings of
relief from its bullpen en route to a 15-9 victory over host Babson
College in a non-conference baseball matchup at Babson's Govoni
Field on Thursday afternoon. With the win, the Huskies, ranked
first in the nation in the most recent National College Baseball
Writers Association weekly poll, improved to 32-5 overall, while
the Beavers dropped to 21-17 with the loss.
Leading USM's 16-hit attack were senior captain Ryan Pike (Saco,
Maine), who went 3-for-5 with two home runs, three runs scored, and
four RBIs, sophomore Mike Eaton (Sabattus, Maine), who went 2-for-5
with a grand slam, one run scored, and five RBIs. Junior Collin
Henry (Penobscot, Maine) added three hits, including a double and a
homer, three runs scored, and two RBIs, senior captain Chris
Burleson (Portland, Maine) chipped in with three hits, including a
double, and three runs, and junior Josh Mackey (Danvers, Mass.)
recorded two hits, one of them a double, a run, and two RBIs.
Babson was led by senior co-captain Bryan Evans
(Bellaire, Texas), who went 3-for-4 with a double, a home
run, one run scored, and four RBIs, and junior Peter
O'Toole (Salem, Mass.), who went 2-for-5 with a double,
one run, and two driven in. Sophomore Billy Besinger
(Milton, Mass.) added two hits and two runs scored for his
team-leading 19th multi-hit game of the season, first-year
Travis Jonasson (Needham, Mass.) went 2-for-4 with
a run and an RBI, and first-year Stephen Albano (Amherst,
N.H.) added a two-run single.
The Beavers took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first, as
Jonasson and Evans recorded back-to-back RBI singles. USM then tied
the game on a two-run homer by Pike in the second before plating
four runs in the third, including Pike's second two-run bomb in as
many frames, for a 6-2 advantage.
Babson regained the lead in the bottom of the third, as a
two-run homer by Evans and a two-run single by Albano highlighted a
six-run inning that gave the hosts an 8-6 advantage. However,
Southern Maine took the lead for good on a grand slam by Eaton in
the top of the fourth that made it 10-8 in favor of the visitors,
and the Huskies went on to score four more in the sixth and another
in the seventh on their way to the 15-9 victory.
Junior Andrew deBethune (St. Albans, Maine) earned the win (2-0)
with 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, giving up two hits and one
walk while striking out two. First-year Brennan Perry (Hampden,
Maine) added three more strong innings out of the pen, allowing no
runs and no hits while fanning three, and Eaton came on to get the
final three outs, surrendering just one unearned run on two hits
and striking out one.
Junior Michael O'Brien (Shrewsbury, Mass.) came
on in relief in the fourth for Babson and suffered the loss,
dropping his record to 4-2 on the year.
