BOX SCORE
WINTER HAVEN, Fla. -- Senior Dave Ahern blasted
two home runs and junior Sean Cleary went 4-for-5
with an RBI to lead the Babson baseball team to a 7-6 win over
Amherst College on day four of the Beavers' spring break trip to
Florida. With the victory, Babson improved to 5-1 with two games
remaining on its southern swing.
Junior Trevor MacNeill started and pitched
seven quality innings for the Beavers, giving up three runs on
seven hits, walking one and striking out three as he earned his
first win of the season. Fellow junior Patrick
Doherty came on to pitch the final two innings to earn his
first save.
After scoring its first run on an error in the bottom of the
first, Babson added two more in the second. Sophomore John
Botelho plated the first with a sacrifice fly to center,
and two batters later senior Billy Besinger drove in another to
give the Green and White an early 3-1 lead.
Amherst tied the game with two runs in the top of the fourth,
but the Beavers took the lead for good in the bottom half, as Ahern
belted his second homer of the season with one out to make it 4-3.
Cleary later singled in the fifth Babson run in the sixth, senior
Corey Highfield added an RBI double in the
seventh, and Ahern crushed his second home run of the day and third
of the season in the eighth to give the Beavers a 7-3
advantage.
The Lord Jeffs made it interesting in the top of the ninth, as
Thomas Wheeler hit a two-out, three-run homer to cut his team's
deficit to one. Amherst then put the tying run on first when the
next batter singled, but Doherty would induce a game-ending
fielder's choice grounder to finally secure the 7-6 Babson win.
