Baseball vs. MIT
Friday, April 22 | 3:30 p.m. | Fran O'Brien Field | Cambridge, Mass.
Saturday, April 23 | 12 p.m. (DH) | Govoni Field | Babson Park, Mass.
Babson: Roster | Schedule & Results | Stats
MIT: Roster | Schedule & Results | Stats
NEWMAC: Standings | Schedule & Results | Stats
Poll: D3baseball.com Top 25
SERIES HISTORY
• Babson and MIT will meet for a three-game series beginning on Friday afternoon in Cambridge before shifting to Babson Park for a doubleheader on Saturday.
• The Beavers are 55-38-1 all-time against the Engineers in a series that dates back to 1980 and have won 11 of the last 14 games between the teams.
• The Beavers outscored MIT 34-3 on the way to sweeping a three-game series on April 12-14, 2019, and the teams split a pair in the 2019 NEWMAC Tournament.
LAST MEETING
• After a walk-off grand slam by Babson's Jake Oliger '20 capped a six-run, two-out rally in the bottom of the 10th inning to avoid elimination and capture a dramatic 9-6 victory over the Engineers on May 7, 2019, the Engineers came back the next day to earn the conference championship with an 8-2 win over the sixth-ranked Beavers in the NEWMAC final on May 8, 2019.
• MIT's Patrick Callahan '19 tossed a complete game and Matt Johnston '20 and Thomas Allison both homered in the title-clinching victory for the Engineers. Callahan was selected as the NEWMAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player after striking out eight. Johnston went 4-for-5 at the plate with three RBI, Allison had two hits and three RBI, and Andrew Krause was 3-for-5 with two runs batted in to pace the offense.
• Brian McHale '19, Connor Gill '19, Oliger and senior Thomas Lapham all had two hits apiece for the Beavers. Gill and Nicholas Browne '19 each drove in a run, and Michael Genaro '19 suffered the loss after giving up four runs while striking out five in 4.1 innings.
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Babson (20-8, 9-1 NEWMAC) brings a nine-game winning streak into the weekend after mid-week victories over conference foe Clark on Tuesday (5-3) and non-conference opponent Johnson & Wales on Wednesday (12-6) at Govoni Field.
• Junior Patrick Manning went 4-for-4 and drove in two runs and Babson scored in double digits for the fourth time in the last five games in the win over JWU. Sophomore Tanner Santos had a double and a triple, knocked in three runs and scored three times for the Beavers as nine players accounted for 14 hits. First-year Walter Sadowsky collected two hits and an RBI, graduate student Alex Reynolds had a single and two RBI, and sophomore Francis Kiely came off the bench with an RBI double.
• Lapham is batting .350 with four extra-base hits, 16 RBI and team highs of 21 walks, 11 stolen bases and 33 runs scored, classmate Josh Yellen is hitting .336 with five extra-base hits and a team-high 24 runs batted in, and senior Sean Burychka (.312) and Kiely (.284) are tied for second with 22 RBI apiece.
• Junior Anthony St. John (4-0, 3.05 ERA), classmate Tim Noone (5-1, 3.31 ERA) and sophomore Tristen Spalter (4-2, 3.05 ERA) are a combined 13-3 this spring, while the trio of senior Will Cournan (1-0) and juniors Stephen McLendon (2-1, 4 saves) and Tim Person (2-0) boast a 1.91 ERA to go along with 57 strikeouts in 42.1 innings out of the bullpen.
SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
• MIT (9-16-1, 4-6 NEWMAC) is coming off a 7-6 conference victory over WPI on Wednesday in Northborough, Mass. The Engineers also took the opener of a three-game set against league foe Wheaton last weekend.
• Junior Kyle Sonandres led MIT with a pair of home runs and three RBI while senior Nick Aiello had two hits, including a homer. Sophomore Teddy Schoenfeld and first-year Brian Rapanan also had two hits apiece in the win. Junior Graham Cartwright pitched five innings and struck out eight to improve his record to 4-2.
• Schoenfeld (.375P leads the team in hitting, doubles (10), extra-base hits (16) and RBI (25). Juniors Kyle Sonandres (.346, 3 2B, 4 HR) and Jake Sonandres (.333, 4 2B, 2 HR), sophomore Michael Finch (.314, 4 2B, 4 HR) and Aiello (.311, 4 2B, 3 HR) are all key parts of the offense, and first-year Malachi Soqui (.294) has six doubles and a team-high six home runs.
• Cartwright (4.81 ERA) leads the team in wins and strikeouts (38), while Saketh Gabbita (2-0, 3.86 ERA) has 11 appearances in relief and is the only other Engineer with more than one win.
CHECKING THE NEWMAC STANDINGS
• Babson is alone in first in the NEWMAC standings at 9-1, while Coast Guard and Wheaton are tied for second at 7-3 and Springfield is fourth at 6-4. There are seven conference games remaining in the regular season.
• MIT is alone in fifth at 4-6, followed by Clark (3-7), WPI (2-8) and Emerson (2-8).
KELLY, SPALTER SWEEP NEWMAC WEEKLY AWARDS
• Kelly batted .474 with three doubles, nine RBI and seven runs scored on the way to earning conference player of the week honors, while Spalter went 2-0 with a 0.90 ERA and held hitters to a .142 average in 10.0 innings of work on the way to being named NEWMAC Pitcher of the Week on Monday.
• Kelly drove in a run in each of Babson's five games last week and matched the program's single-game record and tied for the most hits by a Division III player with six in Saturday's game two victory over Emerson.
• Spalter tossed six shutout innings to earn the win last Monday against Coast Guard and then allowed one run on one hit in 4.0 innings of relief to pick up another win in the nightcap of Saturday's twin bill against Emerson.
BEAVER BITES
• Lapham has reached base in 20 consecutive games going back to March 16.
• First-year Walter Sadowsky enters the weekend riding a nine-game hitting streak and Lapham has hit safely in eight in a row.
• Yellen leads the Beavers with 11 multi-hit games and eight multi-RBI games.
• With its victory on Tuesday, Babson has now recorded a winning streak of eight games or longer in each of its last five full seasons of competition going back to 2017.
NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers are 16-3 this season when scoring first and 12-1 when scoring in the first inning.
• Babson is 20-4 on the year when scoring at least three runs and 17-2 when allowing five runs or less.
• The Green and White is 13-1 when finishing with more hits than its opponents.
• The Beavers are 5-3 in games decided by one or two runs.
UP NEXT
• The Beavers will be right back in action on Sunday with a make-up game at Southern Maine.
