BABSON PARK, Mass.—Senior Tim Clark (West Springfield, Mass.) had three hits and classmate Kyle McKelvey (Schenectady, N.Y.) drove in a pair of runs to help visiting Western New England University to a 6-3 win over Babson College in non-conference baseball action on Monday afternoon at Govoni Field.

With its eighth win in the last nine outings Western New England moves to 28-9 on the season while Babson falls to 22-16 overall.

Sophomore Dillon Gonzalez (Beverly, Mass.) had two hits and scored once while senior Conor Kortmann (Manalapan, N.J.) had a pair of hits and drove in a run for the Beavers.
Junior Jeff Schult (Wappingers Falls, N.Y.) and sophomore Steve Buckley (Monroe, Conn.) each doubled and had two hits for the Golden Bears.

After a pair of scoreless innings Western New England got on the board in the top of the third, stringing together five straight hits to take a 4-0 lead. Schult smoked a one-out double to left center field and Clark singled down the left field line to put the Golden Bears up 1-0. Senior Mike Rubino (Northford, Conn.) and Buckley followed with singles to load the bases before McKelvey drove home a pair of runs with a double to center. Senior Taylor Perun (Plainville, Conn.) capped the rally with a sacrifice fly to plate Buckley.

Babson's first-year starter Nick Ahearn (Norfolk, Mass.) settled down to retire 11 straight Western New England batters before first-years T.J. Wyrebek (Bristol, Conn.) and Tim Budd (Cheshire, Conn.) started the top of the seventh inning with back-to-back singles. The Golden Bears would load the bases but only scored once to extend their lead to 5-0 as Beavers' reliever, first-year Hunter Silva (Bourne, Mass.) induced a double-play and then closed the inning with a strikeout, leaving Rubino stranded at third base.

Senior John Botelho (Tempe, Ariz.) got Babson's first hit of the day in the bottom of the sixth inning and the Beavers got on the board in the bottom of the seventh with a pair of runs. Gonzalez led off with a single through the right side and senior Trevor Boyce (Canton, Mass.) was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. Gonzalez advanced to third on a fly out to right and scored one batter later on a single by Kortmann. Sophomore Sean MacPhee (Framingham, Mass.) followed with a single through the left side to plate Boyce, cutting the deficit to 5-2.

Western New England threatened to break the game open in the top of the eighth inning as Buckley led off with a double, McKelvey reached first after being hit by a pitch and Perun followed with a walk to load the bases with no one out. Silva worked out of danger though, striking out the side to keep the Beavers within three.

The Golden Bears tacked on a run in the top of the ninth inning, pushing their lead to 6-2, but Babson refused to go quietly in the bottom half of the frame as senior Chris Kucher (Westwood, Mass.) led off with a walk and Kortmann followed with a single to put runners on the corners. Junior Joe Zanca (Braintree, Mass.) smacked a one-out single to right center, plating Kucher, but pinch runner Shea Rosadino (Devon, Pa.) was cut down at the plate, thwarting the Beavers' rally.

Sophomore Trevor Brenton (Enfield, Conn.) started for Western New England and was perfect through four innings with seven strikeouts before giving way to first-year Tom Mahoney, who tossed 2 1/3 innings to earn the win and move to 4-1 on the season.

Ahearn took the loss for Babson, giving up five runs on nine hits while striking out two in six-plus innings of work to fall to 4-1 on the season. Silva gave up a run on three hits and struck out four in 2 1/3 innings of relief.

Babson will be back in action on Tuesday afternoon when they host Salem State at 3:30pm while Western New England hosts Curry in the opening round of the Commonwealth Coast Conference Tournament on Thursday afternoon at 3:00pm.