NORTHBOROUGH, Mass— Sophomore Nick Heafey (Florence, Mass.) drove home the winning run with an infield grounder in the bottom of the 12th inning as Brandeis came from behind to defeat Babson College, 6-5, in non-conference baseball action Saturday afternoon at the New England Baseball Complex.

With the outcome, Brandeis picks up its first win of the season and improves to 1-1 while Babson evens its record at 2-2 on the young season.

Senior Sean Burychka (Mount Laurel, N.J.) and Jack Pirkl (Brightwaters, N.Y.) had three hits each to lead a 13-hit attack for Babson, with Burychka driving in a pair. First-year Justin Guest (West Windsor, N.J.) clouted his first collegiate home run and sophomores Tanner Santos (Bethany, Conn.) and Francis Kiely (Falmouth, Maine) each drove in a run as all nine Beaver starters had at least one hit.

Graduate student Dan Frey (Ipswich, Mass.) had four hits, including a triple, and scored twice to lead Brandeis' 15-hit attack. Junior Brian King (Palos Verde, Calif.) had three hits with a double and an RBI and grad student Victor Oppenheimer (West Hills, Calif.) had two hits with a double and three runs batted in.

After Guest gave the Beavers an early lead with a two-out solo home run in the second inning, Babson extended the lead with three runs in the fifth inning.  They loaded the bases with singles by junior Patrick Manning (Weymouth, Mass.) and senior Josh Yellen (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) sandwiched around a hit by pitch by senior Thomas Lapham (Charlestown, Mass.), and Kiely brought home the first run with a sacrifice fly to left. Junior Michael Cook (Whitman, Mass.) reloaded the bases when he was hit by a pitch, and Burychka brought home two runs with a single to left.

The Green and White extended the lead to 5-0 with a manufactured run in the sixth inning. Pirkl led off with a single to right, stole second, went to third on an infield grounder, and scored on a sac fly to center by Santos.

Brandeis came back with three runs in the last of the sixth. Consecutive singles by grad student Luke Hall (Georgetown, Mass.), Frey and King loaded the bases, and Oppenheimer brought home two with a ground-rule double to right. After Heafey walked to reload the bases, junior Sam Nugent (Mansfield, Mass.) drew another walk to plate King with the third run.

The Judges pulled to within 5-4 in the seventh when Frey laced a two-out triple down the right field line and scored on King's single to left. The hosts tied the game in the bottom of the ninth when Hall was hit by a pitch, advanced to third on a double to right by King, and scored on a groundout by Oppenheimer.

The Judges pulled out the win in the bottom of the 12th when Oppenheimer singled to center with one out, went to second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on an infield single by senior Cam Roberts (Leominster, Mass.), and scored when Babson tried for an inning-ending double play on a grounder to short but Heafey beat the throw to first.

Roberts picked up the win (1-0) for Brandeis, pitching three innings of scoreless relief, allowing just one hit and striking out two. Junior Stephen McLendon (Nashua, N.H.) worked 3.2 innings out of the bullpen for Babson but suffered the loss (0-1), giving up just three hits and two runs while fanning five.

The Beavers are back in action when they head to Port Charlotte, Florida, for Spring Break and six games in six days from March 12-17, beginning with Lebanon Valley on Saturday, March 12.

GAME NOTES
• Babson is 17-27 all-time against Brandeis in a series that dates back to 1976.
• Saturday's game was the first meeting between the two schools since 2010.
• The Beavers lost for just the third time in their last 15 games dating back to 2020 when scoring at least five runs.
• The Green and White have at least one extra-base hit in 13 of their last 14 games and at least one walk in 15 straight outings.