NORTON, Mass.—Junior Graham Cartwright (La Jolla, Calif.) scored the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh and then recorded the final six outs for his second save of the year as fifth-seeded MIT defeated third-seeded Babson College, 4-1, in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament elimination game at Sidell Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Babson, which is ranked second in the NCAA Region I rankings, slips to 24-15 on the year with the loss and now must wait until May 15 to see if earns an at-large selection to the NCAA Tournament. MIT improved to 18-22-1 with its second consecutive NEWMAC Tournament elimination-game victory and advances to the championship round to face top-seeded Wheaton.

Senior Jack Pirkl (Brightwaters, N.Y.) singled, walked and drove in a run, while classmate Josh Yellen (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) and first-year Walter Sadowsky (Morristown, N.J.) both went 1-for-3 with a single and a walk for the Beavers. Senior Sean Burychka (Mount Laurel, N.J.) also singled and scored in the loss. Junior Anthony St. John (Hopewell, N.J.) allowed three runs on six hits to go along with four strikeouts in 6.2 innings on the hill to slip to 4-2 on the season.

Sophomore Teddy Schoenfeld (Boulder, Colo.) went 2-for-4 with a double, a triple and an RBI, junior Kyle Sonandres (Torrance, Calif.) doubled as part of a two-hit day, and fellow juniors Jake Sonandres (Torrance, Calif.) and Erik Anderson (Palos Verdes, Calif.) and first-year Reed Tubbs (Pflugerville, Texas) each drove in a run for the Engineers. Junior Matt Leonard (San Antonio, Texas) fanned seven while giving up just one run on five hits over 7.0 innings to pick up his second victory of the year.

Pirkl put the Green and White up 1-0 in the last of the second plating Burychka with a two-out base hit through the right side. St. John retired 11 of the first 12 batters he faced and gave up just two hits through the first five innings before Schoenfeld tripled to start the sixth and scored on Jake Sonandres' single to center one batter later to even the game at 1-1.

Sadowsky was stranded at second following a one-out single and a stolen base in the bottom of the sixth and MIT went in front for good with a pair of runs in the seventh. Cartwright led off with a double and later scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Tubbs and Schoenfeld smacked a two-out double to left center to drive in Michael Finch (Brentwood, T for a 3-1 advantage.

Kyle Sonandres led off the eighth with a single and came around to score on Anderson's sacrifice fly to make it 4-1 before the Engineers handed the ball to Cartwright, who recorded four strikeouts over two innings of work to secure the victory.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are 57-40-1 all-time against MIT, which includes a 12-9 mark in the NEWMAC Tournament.
• Pirkl, who extended his hitting streak to seven games, batted .400 (4-for-10) with two RBI in three NEWMAC Tournament outings, while Sadowsky also went 4-for-10 at the plate and walked three times.
• Sunday's loss marked just the sixth time that Babson has lost this spring in 26 games when scoring first.