Baseball at Keene State
Sunday, April 22—1 p.m.
Owl Athletic Complex—Keene, N.H.
THE SERIES
Babson and Keene State will meet for the 14th time on Sunday afternoon. The Beavers are 6-7 all-time against the Owls and have won three straight matchups between the teams.
LAST MEETING
Senior Mark Webber and junior Edward Lehr each finished with two RBI as the Beavers scored seven times in the seventh inning to rally past Keene State, 7-4, on March 24, 2016, in Babson Park. The Green and White, which didn't record a hit over the first six innings, took advantage of three errors and scored all seven runs with two outs. Billy Hartmann homered for the Owls.
LAST KEENE STATE WIN
Peter Burgio, Ian Swewards, and Nick Vita all homered while combining to drive in 10 runs as the Owls outslugged Babson, 21-6, on March 28, 2012, in Babson Park, Mass. Chris Kucher '13 had a pair of doubles and current assistant coach Conor Kortmann '13 drove in two runs for the Beavers.
SCOUTING THE OWLS
Keene State (13-13) suffered a pair of 3-1 loss at No. 5/8 UMass Boston on Saturday afternoon. Junior Mac Struthers had an RBI in each game for the Owls, who were limited to just seven hits over 18 innings against the Beacons. Junior Devin Springfield is batting .313 with 12 extra-base hits and 19 runs batted in, senior Abe Grainger is hitting .308 with nine extra-base hits and 18 RBI, and junior Nate Rossi checks in at .307 with five doubles, two homers and 18 runs driven in. Sophomore Tyler Fitzgerald is 3-1 with two saves and a 2.59 ERA in 14 appearance out of the bullpen for a Keene State pitching staff that has a 5.54 earned run average on the year.
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
Babson (24-10) finished off a three-game sweep of Emerson with a 15-4 win on Saturday afternoon. Webber and McHale combined to go 7-for-11 with three doubles, six runs scored and four RBI for the Beavers, who scored 10 times over the first four innings. Sophomore Sean Harrington is batting .349 with nine extra-base hits, 23 RBI and 24 walks, classmate Jake Oliger is hitting .346 with eight extra-base hits and 29 runs batted in, and McHale has raised his average to .341 with 11 doubles, three triples, four homers and 21 runs driven in. Juniors Michael Genaro and Connor Gill have combined to go 11-2 with a 2.45 ERA and 61 strikeouts against just 11 walks in 95.2 innings.
MAKING MORE HISTORY
After setting a school record for wins and reaching the NCAA Tournament Harwich Regional final last year, the Beavers wrapped up back-to-back NEWMAC regular season titles for the first time in program history on Saturday. The Green and White will begin its defense of last year's league tournament championship on May 4.
WHAT'S NEXT?
In addition to the seven-run, two-out rally two years ago against Keene State, Babson recorded its last no-hitter against the Owls three years ago. Nick Malatos '15 left with the bases loaded in the fifth and senior John Floegel came on and needed just one pitch to escape the jam as the Beavers turned a 9-3-6 triple play to close out a 5-1 victory that was called due to rain.
HEATING UP AT THE PLATE
McHale is 10-for-23 (.435) with five doubles and seven runs scored, while Oliger is batting .421 (8-for-19) with two doubles and seven RBI in five games this week.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
The Beavers are batting .312 with 50 extra-base hits in 15 games in the month of April. Additionally, their pitching staff has a 2.81 ERA during this stretch.
