BABSON PARK, Mass.--Senior Jordy Allard (Woodstock, Vt.) tossed eight shutout innings in the opener to help No. 9 Babson College split Saturday's New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) baseball doubleheader with 19th-ranked Wheaton College at Govoni Field.

The Beavers took game one 3-0 before suffering a 7-4 loss to the Lyons in the back end of the twin bill.

Babson is now 5-1 overall and in conference play, while Wheaton improves to 5-1 overall and 3-1 in the NEWMAC.

GAME 1: Babson 3, Wheaton 0
Allard was superb in the opener recording a career-high 10 strikeouts while allowing just two hits over eight shutout innings to improve to 3-0 on the year. Sophomore Patrick Manning (Weymouth, Mass.) tripled and scored twice, and graduate student AJ DiFillipo (Peabody, Mass.) and junior Thomas Lapham (Charlestown, Mass.) each drove in a run for the Beavers.

Junior Gavin Reily (Bridgewater, Mass.) shouldered the loss to drop to 2-1 for Wheaton despite allowing just one earned run on five hits over 7.0 innings. Classmate Jacob Studley (Barrington, R.I.) had a double for the Lyons, who were limited to a season-low four hits.

Manning led off the bottom of the first with a triple to left center and scored on Lapham's single one batter later to give the Green and White a 1-0 lead. The Beavers loaded the bases with no outs in the third and pushed across a pair of runs on a throwing error, Wheaton's second of the frame, to make it 3-0.

Allard worked around hitting junior Zach DeMattio (North Attleboro, Mass.) to start the second with a double play and retired 14 straight batters before senior George Mulcahey (Brooklyn, N.Y.) reached on an error with two outs in the sixth. Classmate Brody Ashley (Strafford, N.H.) followed with an infield single, the Lyons' first of the day, but Allard fanned Studley to end the threat.

Wheaton stranded a pair of runners in the eighth and had first and third with one out in the ninth before senior Henry Leake (Burbank, Calif.) recorded a strikeout and a pop up to end the game.

GAME 2: Wheaton 7, Babson 4
Manning went 2-for-4 with a double and run scored, and DiFillipo, Lapham and senior Jack Ward (Danvers, Mass.) each drove in a run for the Green and White. Graduate student Jack Theriault (Tewksbury, Mass.) came out of the bullpen to throw four shutout innings of relief in the loss.

Junior Stephen Quigley (Halifax, Mass.) drove in three runs and Studley, DeMattio and junior Andrew Spirito (Cranston, R.I.) all finished with two hits apiece for Wheaton. Spirito also had two RBI in support of junior Griffin Young (Dover, N.H.), who struck out eight and allowed two earned runs over 7.0 innings while retiring his final 14 hitters to improve to 2-0 on the season.

Quigley drove in the game's first run with a sacrifice fly to left in the second and then capped a three-run third with an RBI single to left to give the Lyons a 4-0 lead. The Beavers cut their deficit in the half in the bottom half of the frame thanks to a singled down the left field line by Lapham and an RBI ground out by DiFillipo, but Wheaton responded with three more runs in the fifth after loading the bases with nobody out.

Spirito drove in DeMattio with a single to center, Quigley plated Haskell with an RBI groundout, and Mulcahey executed a perfect suicide squeeze to bring Croteau home to make it 7-2. Junior Sean Burychka (Mount Laurel, N.J.) recorded Babson's first hit since the third with a one-out single in the bottom of ninth and later scored on Ward's two-out knock to right to bring the potential tying run to the plate before Roberge induced a game-ending ground out to first.

The teams will return to Govoni Field to wrap up their four game series with a doubleheader on Sunday beginning at 12 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• Babson is 30-45 all-time against Wheaton with the teams having split their last six meetings.
• Prior to game one on Saturday, the Beavers had not shut out Wheaton since recording a 1-0 eight-inning win back on March 26, 2005.
• With eight shutout frames on Saturday, Allard has allowed just one earned run in 23.0 innings this spring, lowering his season ERA to 0.39.
• The Beavers are 42-6 at Govoni Field dating back to April 22, 2017, with three of the losses coming against the Lyons.