NEWMAC Baseball Tournament
Friday-Sunday, May 4-6
Govoni Field—Babson Park, Mass.

TOURNAMENT BRACKET

Tournament Schedule
Thursday, May 3 at MIT
Game 1: No. 4 MIT 5, No. 5 Springfield 0

Friday, May 4 at campus sites
Game 2: No. 4 MIT at No. 1 Babson, 3:30 p.m.
Game 3: No. 3 Wheaton at No. 2 Clark, 3:30 p.m.

Saturday, May 5 at Babson
Game 4: Loser Game 2 vs. Loser Game 3, 9:30 a.m.
Game 5: Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 3, 12:30 p.m.
Game 6: Winner Game 4 vs. Loser Game 5, 3:30 p.m.

Sunday, May 6 at Babson
Game 7: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6, 11 a.m.
Game 8: if necessary, 3 p.m.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR
Babson captured its first NEWMAC Tournament title since 2009 by sweeping a pair of best-of-three series against Wheaton and MIT last spring. The league returns to a five-team double-elimination championship for the first time since 2013, which means the champion will be determined over one weekend instead of two.

BABSON AGAINST THE FIELD
vs. Clark: The Beavers were swept by Clark to open conference play back on March 24. Babson is 3-4 all-time against the Cougars in the postseason although the last meeting came all the way back in 2008.

vs. Wheaton: The Green and White won twice in its final at-bat and swept a three-game set against the Lyons back on April 7-8. The Beavers are 7-10 all-time against the Lyons in the postseason and have met seven times in the playoffs since 2014.

vs. MIT: Babson took two-out-of-three against the Engineers back on April 13-14 and have won eight of the last 11 games between the teams. The Green and White is 10-7 all-time against MIT in the postseason.

SCOUTING THE LYONS
Third-seeded Wheaton (21-15) enters the tournament having won 11 of its final 14 games to close out the regular season. Sophomore Nick Raposo leads the league in average (.424), doubles (18) and extra-base hits (24), and has scored 41 times to go along with 37 RBI. Senior Matt Cook is batting .331 with 13 extra-base hits and 24 runs batted in, while junior Jared Sharkey is hitting .298 with 15 doubles, four triples, two homers and 27 RBI. First-year Gavin Reily and senior Dan Southerland have combined to go 9-1 with a 1.83 ERA and 99 strikeouts over 108.0 innings, and senior Brady Furdon is 4-4 with a 3.97 ERA in 11 appearances.

SCOUTING THE COUGARS
Second-seeded Clark (25-11), which is back in the tournament for the second year in a row, won eight of 10 games to end the regular season. Graduate student Kyle Bonicki is batting .391 with 17 extra-base hits, 17 RBI and 41 runs scored, senior Teddy Downing is hitting .391 with 11 extra-base hits and 34 RBI, and junior Zach Kelley boasts a .357 average to go along with 18 extra-base hits and 35 runs driven in. Downing is 3-1 with five saves in 12 relief appearances, junior Dan Shaw is 5-1 with a 2.09 ERA in 47.2 innings and classmate Cal Slepkow has gone 6-1 with a 3.54 earned run average in nine starts.

SCOUTING THE ENGINEEERS
Fourth-seeded MIT (19-12) advanced to the weekend with a 4-0 win over fifth-seeded Springfield on Thursday. Senior Garrett Greenwood doubled twice and drove in a run, while Zachary Kopstein allowed just four over seven shutout innings for the Engineers. Greenwood is batting .363 with 11 extra-base hits, 24 stolen bases and 32 runs scored, senior Max Lancaster is hitting .327 with 11 doubles and 26 RBI, and classmate David Heller has a .292 average to go along with .12 extra-base hits and 30 runs driven in. First-year Casey Bussone is 2-1 with a 1.49 ERA in 11 appearances, while junior Nick Charchut has gone 3-1 with a 3.08 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 26.1 innings.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
Top-seeded Babson (29-10) enters the tournament having won eight in a row and 22 of its last 25 games. Junior Edward Lehr is batting .369 with eight extra-base hits and a .482 OBP, and senior Ryan Arena is hitting .355 with league highs of nine homers and 42 runs batted in to go along with 13 doubles and 45 runs scored. Sophomore Jake Oliger is batting .341 with eight doubles and 32 RBI, while junior Brian McHale checks in at .327 with 20 extra-base hits, 22 RBI and 41 runs scored. The trio of senior John Floegel and juniors Michael Genaro and Connor Gill have combined to go 15-4 with a 2.61 ERA and 116 strikeouts against just 26 walks for the Green and White, which boasts a 3.35 team earned run average.

MADE TO BE BROKEN
The Green and White, which has already matched last season's single-season record of 29 wins, has set new marks for doubles (94) and walks (194) this spring. The Beavers also are just five runs away from tying the program's 1998 record for runs (315), and the pitching staff is seven strikeouts away from matching the 2002 squad's single-season mark of 280.

FEELING GOOD AT GOVONI FIELD
Babson is 10-1 at home this season and has won 19 of its last 20 games inside the friendly confines of Govoni Field going back to April 22 of last year. The Beavers are batting .336 with 27 doubles and 11 homers, and are averaging 10.82 runs per game at home this spring.

REGIONAL IMPACT
All four teams participating in the tournament appeared in the second edition of the NCAA regional rankings on Thursday. Babson is third, MIT is seventh, Clark is ninth and Wheaton is 10th.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
The Beavers are 20-0 this season and 37-2 going back to last year entering the weekend when allowing three runs or less.