BABSON PARK, Mass.— Junior Matt Stucchi (Rexford, N.Y.) scored a game-high four goals and Babson College survived a second-half comeback to pull out a 12-7 victory over Bates College Wednesday afternoon in the men's lacrosse home opener at MacDowell Field.

With the win, Babson improves to 2-0 on the season while Bates, playing for the first time this spring, falls to 0-1.

The Beavers also got two goals and an assist from junior Chi Chi Price (Hingham, Mass.) and two goals from graduate student Lee Sipes (Windham, N.H.). Sophomore Topher Bower (Chicago, Ill.) contributed a goal and two assists, classmate Alex Fairman (Fayetteville, Ark.) added a goal and one assist, and sophomore Jacob Tauss (San Marcos, Calif.) and junior Nick Mitchell (Sudbury, Mass.) scored once each.

Sophomore Grey Sunderland (Bellevue, Wash.) won 14-of-23 face-offs for Babson and picked up a team-high seven ground balls. Junior Kyle Sanborn (Brookfield, Conn.) collected two ground balls and three caused turnovers, and senior Mac Mowat (Bellevue, Wash.) made 13 saves in goal to record the win.

Senior Jack Lousararian (Mansfield, Mass.) and sophomore Will Masterson (York, Maine) tallied a goal and an assist each to lead the Bobcats. Senior Jackson Sell (Mill Valley, Calif.), juniors Malcolm Klingbeil (Powell, Ohio) and Malcolm Klingbeil (Powell, Ohio), and sophomores Max Patterson (Cape Elizabeth, Maine), Jack Daoust (Westwood, Mass.), and Jake Johnson (Lake Forest Park, Wash.) also scored once each in the setback.

Patterson led the defense with five ground balls and two caused turnovers, and sophomore Spencer Wood (Los Altos Hills, Calif.) and junior Garrett Fitzsimons (Garden City, N.Y.) split the time in goal and combined for 14 saves,

Down 1-0 just shy of four minutes into the game, the Green and White scored seven unanswered goals to close the stanza. Stucchi and Tauss scored 46 seconds apart to take the lead at the 10:15 mark, Fairman made it 3-1 at 7:51 and Bower followed with his first of the day for a 4-1 lead with 4:38 to go in the frame. Stucchi scored his second goal of the afternoon 47 seconds later and then followed a man-up goal by Sipes to make it 7-1 with 18 seconds left in the period.

The hosts extended the margin to 10-1 with three unanswered goals in the second quarter. Mitchell fired in an unassisted marker with 12:46 on the clock, Price scored his first of the day from Bower two minutes later and Sipes finished off the scoring in the half with 5:4 remaining.

The Bobcats came alive in the third quarter, scoring all three goals of the frame. Johnson and Lousararian scored in the first 75 seconds of the frame and Masterson fired one in the cut the margin to 10-4 headed into the fourth.

Stucchi and Daoust traded goals in the first five minutes of the final frame before Price tacked on a goal for Babson with just under four minutes remaining. Klingbeil and Patterson rounded out the scoring for Bates with a pair of late goals.

Babson finished with a 52-31 advantage in shots and had a narrow 27-26 margin in ground balls. Babson went 23-for-24 on clear attempts and Bates was 22-for-24.

Both teams return to action on Sunday as Babson travels to Union at 3 p.m., while Bates visits top-ranked RIT at 12 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are now 6-4 all-time against the Bobcats and have won straight games in the series.
• Prior to Wednesday, four of the last five games between the teams had been decided by two goals or less.
• Sunderland has won 28-of-41 face-offs in Babson's first two games this spring.