BOX SCORE

BABSON PARK, Mass. – First-year Kyle Lyon (Flemington, N.J.) combined with two other pitchers on a three-hit shutout and senior captain Brian Scanlon (Lawrenceville, N.J.) drove in three runs as the Babson College Beavers blanked visiting Clark University, 11-0, in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) baseball game at Govoni Field on Tuesday afternoon.

With the win, Babson (18-8 overall, 8-4 NEWMAC), ranked seventh in New England, concluded its regular season conference play and can finish no lower than third in the final NEWMAC standings. As a result, the Beavers will host at least a first round game of the six-team, double-elimination tournament next Wednesday, April 21, at 3:30 p.m. Babson could possible host a rematch with Clark (12-12 overall, 4-6 NEWMAC) in the contest, as the Cougars currently sit in fourth place in the league standings with two games left to play.

Lyon was once again brilliant on the mound for Babson, improving his record to 4-0 with 7 2/3 shutout innings. The rookie righthander allowed just three hits and two walks while striking out five as he lowered his ERA to 2.77 this spring. Junior Jeff Browne (Foxboro, Mass.) came on and got the final out of the eighth inning for the Beavers, and sophomore Pat Doherty (Arlington, Mass.) pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to finish off the combined shutout.

Scanlon paced the Beavers' offense, going 3-for-5 with a double and three RBIs. Fellow senior Jake Bartlett (Weymouth, Mass.) extended his hitting streak to nine games by going 2-for-4 with two runs driven in, and senior captain Dave Ahern (Bedford, Mass.) pushed his hit streak to a team-best nine contests by going 2-for-2 with a double, three runs scored, and one knocked in.

Junior Peter Lewis (Gardiner, Maine), junior Andrew Agostini (Williamstown, Mass.), and sophomore pinch-hitter Nicholas Kellogg (Florence, Mass.) accounted for Clark's three hits, while first-year Andrew LeBlanc (Farmington, Conn.) started and took the loss on the mound, dropping his season record to 2-4.

Babson jumped all over the Cougars in the bottom of the first inning, plating five runs on just three hits. A walk to senior Peter O'Toole (Salem, Mass.) and a hit-by-pitch by sophomore Travis Jonasson (Needham, Mass.) put two men on for Ahern, who drove in one with a double to the gap in right center. A dropped fly ball on a sac fly to deep left by first-year Chris Kucher (Westwood, Mass.) plated another run, and two batters later a single by junior Billy Besinger (Milton, Mass.) brought home another run as the Beavers increased their lead to 3-0. Bartlett then capped off the five-run frame with a two-out, two-run single to center, giving the hosts a 5-0 advantage.

Babson continued to add to its lead with single runs in each of the next three innings, with Jonasson and first-year John Botelho (Tempe, Ariz.) recorded RBI groundouts in the second and third, respectively, and Scanlon added a run-scoring single in the fourth. Two more errors and an RBI double by Scanlon added two more unearned runs in the sixth, and Ahern singled and scored on another RBI hit by Scanlon in the eighth as the Beavers surged to the 11-0 victory.