SPRINGFIELD, Mass.—No. 11 Babson College got seven strong innings from senior Jordy Allard (Woodstock, Vt.) in game one and recorded 15 hits in game two on the way to sweeping fourth-seeded Springfield College in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament semifinal series on Saturday at Archie Allen Field.
Top-seeded Babson (12-2), winners of seven in a row, advance to the NEWMAC Tournament final for the fourth year in a row, while Springfield sees its year come to a close at 3-7.
GAME 1: Babson 4, Springfield 2
Junior Josh Yellen (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI in support of Allard, who gave up just one earned run and scattered six hits while striking out five over seven innings to improve to 6-0 on the season. Graduate student William Gallagher (Kingston, Mass.) tossed a perfect eighth inning and senior Henry Leake (Burbank, Calif.) retired each of the three hitters he faced in the ninth to record his fourth save for the Beavers.
Senior Jack Simonetty (Wappingers Falls, N.Y.) homered and sophomore Michael Barrett (Longmeadow, Mass.) and senior Conor Santoianni (Stormville, N.Y.) both finished with two hits for the Pride. Senior Noah Bleakley (Granby, Mass.) struck out seven but was saddled with the loss after giving up two runs on four hits in 4.2 innings.
Limited to just one hit through the first four innings, Babson broke the scoreless deadlock in the last of the fifth as Yellen doubled to drive in first-year Francis Kiely (Falmouth, Maine) before later scoring on a double steal for a 2-0 advantage. Springfield took advantage of an error to cut its deficit in half on a sacrifice fly by senior Jack Cooney (Pittsfield, Mass.), but the Beavers answered back with two more runs in the bottom of the frame.
Graduate student AJ DiFillipo (Peabody, Mass.) and junior Sean Burychka (Mount Laurel, N.J.) led off with back-to-back walks and later scored on an RBI groundout by Kiely and a two-out single to right by Yellen to make it 4-1. Simonetty homered with one out in the top of the seventh to pull the Pride within 4-2, but Allard, Gallagher and Leake combined to retired the final eight Springfield batters.
GAME 2: Babson 11, Springfield 8
Sophomore Michael Cook (Whitman, Mass.) went 2-for-3 with two walks and three RBI, while DiFillipo and junior Jack Pirkl (Brightwaters, N.Y.) both recorded three hits and drove in two runs to pace the Beavers' 15-hit attack. Fellow junior Andrew Dembowski (Danvers, Mass.) doubled twice and drove in two runs, while both Yellen and Lapham finished with two hits apiece in the win.
Barrett, Cooney, senior Ryan Smith (Millis, Mass.) and sophomore Joe Traversa (Pittsfield, Mass.) all had two hits for the Pride, which had six different players drive in a run.
Babson stranded a pair of runners on base in the first inning before erupting for six runs in the second. Yellen had an RBI triple, Dembowski produced a two-run double to left and Pirkl, DiFillipo and Cook all added RBI singles as the Beavers sent 11 men to the plate.
Springfield cut its deficit to 6-2 in the top of the fifth thanks as Barrett drove in Smith with a double before scoring on Cooney's one-out single. Bleakley made it 6-3 with his two-out RBI knock in the seventh and back-to-back errors by Babson helped the Pride pull within a run in the eighth.
The Beavers responded though, stringing together seven hits to produce a five-run rally. DiFillipo plated Dembowski with a double to left, Cook followed with a two-run double to center and Lapham and Pirkl added consecutive two-out RBI singles to extend the lead to 11-5.
Senior Tyler Bell (Abington, Mass.) earned his first win of the year in relief of graduate student Ben Gottesman (Acton, Mass.) for the Green and White. He gave up three runs, all unearned, in 3.2 innings of work. Sophomore Stephen McLendon (Nashua, N.H.) recorded the final two outs of the game to record his first career save.
Junior Brendan Kirck (Hamden, Conn.) recorded just four outs for Springfield, allowing six runs on five hits and four walks to fall to 0-1.
Babson returns to action next Saturday at 12 p.m. when it begins a best-of-three series against 14th-ranked Wheaton at Govoni Field.
SERIES NOTES
• The Beavers are 36-22 all-time against Springfield, which includes a 6-1 record in the conference playoffs.
• Prior to Saturday, the Beavers and Pride had not met in the NEWMAC Tournament since 2012.
• Over his last four games, Yellen is 8-for-15 (.533) with three doubles, a triple and five RBI.
• Babson is 12-2 in NEWMAC Tournament games going back to 2017.
