BABSON PARK, Mass.—No. 10 Babson College got a go-ahead two-run homer from junior Thomas Lapham (Charlestown, Mass.) to win game one but 15th-ranked Wheaton College responded with 13 hits in the nightcap as the team split the first two games of their best-of-three New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championship Series on Saturday afternoon at Govoni Field.

Babson (13-3) won the opener 4-1, while Wheaton (15-3) rallied to take game two 9-4 setting up a decisive game three on Sunday at 12 p.m. in Norton, Mass.

GAME 1: Babson 4, Wheaton 1
Graduate student Matthew Valente (Wyckoff, N.J.) went 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBI and Lapham hit his first career homer in support of senior Jordy Allard (Woodstock, Vt.), who improve to 7-0 with the win. He went 6.2 innings allowing one run on five hits while striking out seven before giving way to a trio of Babson relievers to record the final seven outs.

Junior Andrew Spirito (Cranston, R.I.) hit a solo homer, senior George Mulcahey (Brooklyn, N.Y.) singled three times and junior Jared Studley (Barrington, R.I.) went 2-for-3 at the dish for the Lyons. Senior Gavin Reilly (Bridgewater, Mass.) allowed just two earned runs on six hits over 7.0 innings to fall to 5-2 on the year with the loss.

The teams combined for just three hits over the first three and a half innings before Valente gave the Green and White a 1-0 lead with his solo shot to lead off the bottom of the fourth. Wheaton answered an inning later on Spirito's blast to left, but first-year Francis Kiely (Falmouth, Maine) reached on an error to start the bottom of the fifth and Lapham made it 3-1 two batters later with his two-run homer to right.

Babson tacked on another run in the frame as junior Andrew Dembowski (Danvers, Mass.) singled with two outs and reached second on a wild pitch before racing home on Valente's single through the left side for a 4-1 advantage.

Graduate student William Gallagher (Kingston, Mass.) walked the first batter he faced to load the bases in the top of the seventh before getting an inning-ending groundout, and classmate Jack Theriault (Tewksbury, Mass.) used a double play to end the eighth after giving up a one-out single to Studley. Senior Henry Leake (Burbank, Calif.) issued his first walk of the season in the ninth but got a line drive double play to finish off his fifth save of the year.

GAME 2: Wheaton 9, Babson 4
Lapham and sophomore Michael Cook (Whitman, Mass.) both had two hits, while Dembowski and juniors Jack Pirkl (Brightwaters, N.Y.) and Josh Yellen (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) all drove in a run for the Green and White. Graduate student Ben Gottesman (Acton, Mass.) took the loss to drop to 1-1 after giving up three earned runs on three hits in 1.2 innings.

Senior Patrick Santorella (Scituate, Mass.) singled three times, junior Zach DeMattio (North Attleboro, Mass.) went 1-for-3 with two walks and three runs scored, and Spirito and senior Mark D'Augelli (Redding, Conn.) both drove in three runs to lead the Lyons. Junior Griffin Young (Dover, N.H.) improved to 4-0 on the hill despite allowing four runs on seven hits.

Wheaton drew back-to-back walks to begin the second and Spirito hammered his second home run of the day, a three-run blast, as part of a four-run frame. The Beavers responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning thanks to RBI knocks by Yellen and Pirkl and a fielding error that allowed Kiely to score from second. Young was able to limit any further damage though, as junior shortstop Stephen Quigley (Halifax, Mass.) threw out Babson junior Sean Burychka (Mount Laurel, N.J.) from behind the second base bag for the final out to leave the bases loaded.

Quigley made out 5-3 with a two-out RBI single in the fourth and Studley doubled to deep left with two outs in the fifth to drive in another run extending the margin to 6-3. The Lyons then broke the game open in the seventh thanks to D'Augelli's bases-clearing double pushing their lead to 9-3.

The Beavers got a run back on Dembowski's bases-loaded walk in the eighth but again left the bases loaded and were unable to cut further into the deficit.

SERIES NOTES
• Babson and Wheaton have split their last 10 games going back to 2019.
• The Beavers are 11-11 all-time against the Lyons in the conference playoffs and have met 12 times in the NEWMAC Tournament since 2014.
• Pirkl extended his hitting streak to six games, while Lapham also has a hit in six consecutive outings and has now driven in at least one run seven of the last eight contests.
• Allard has gone 2-0 with 17 strikeouts while allowing just one earned run on seven hits in 14.2 innings over two starts this spring against the Lyons.