Baseball at No. 5/3 Trinity
Saturday, February 25 | 3 p.m. ET (DH)
Sunday, February 26 | 12 p.m. ET
Trinity Baseball Field | San Antonio, Texas
SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 6-6 all-time against Trinity in a series that dates back to 2017.
• The Beavers will open their season against the Tigers for the fifth time in the last six seasons.
• Seven of the 12 games between the squads have been decided by one or two runs, which includes all three contests last February.
• Babson has taken two out of three games against Trinity in each of its last two visits to San Antonio (2020, 2022), while the Tigers won two out of three in both 2017 and 2019.
LAST MEETING
• Thomas Lapham '23 came through with a two-run single in the second inning and senior Anthony St. John allowed two runs over 7.0 innings in his first career start to help Babson defeat Trinity, 4-2, in the finale of a three-game series on February 27, 2022, in San Antonio, Texas.
• Seniors Patrick Manning and Michael Cook both doubled and classmate Stephen McLendon worked a perfect ninth inning to record the save for the Beavers, who recorded their second one-run victory of the weekend.
• Brian Schaub drove in a pair of runs and Ezra Gore went 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored for the Tigers, who were limited to just four hits in the loss.
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Babson (0-0) brings back six players that started 20 or more games, a number of strong arms and 27 players in all from a team that finished 24-15 last season.
• Junior Ike Kiely batted .255 with seven doubles, three home runs and tied for team-high honors with 29 runs batted in, senior Jackson Kelly hit .299 with five doubles, three homers and 25 RBI, and Manning homered four times and drove in 14 runs to go along with a .289 average in 26 games.
• Babson returns its top three starting pitchers as well McClendon, who went 2-2 with five saves and a 1.46 ERA in 24.2 innings out of the bullpen on the way to earning all-conference and all-region accolades 2022.
• Senior Tim Noone finished 6-2 with a 3.05 ERA and 53 strikeouts in 56.0 innings, junior Tristen Spalter was 6-3 with a 2.62 ERA and walked just seven batters in 65.1 innings, and St. John went 4-2 with a 3.78 ERA while issuing just eight bases on balls in 64.1 innings of work.
SCOUTING THE TIGERS
• No. 5 D3baseball.com/No. 3 Collegiate Baseball Trinity (3-3) has won two straight games and is coming off a 7-4 victory over Hardin-Simmons in the finale of a three-game set last Sunday.
• Kai Tinker went 2-for-3 with two RBI and three runs scored and Michael Lustina and Khal Coney each drove in a pair of runs in support of Jackson Teer, who recorded 10 strikeouts over 6.0 innings for the Tigers.
• Lazzara is batting .429 with two home runs and five RBI, Michael Montrezza is hitting .412 with a double, five walks and two runs scored, and Ty Preston enters the weekend with a .375 average to go along with two doubles and three runs scored.
• Cade McGahan (0-0) has 10 strikeouts and is holding opposing hitters to a .200 average in 9.0 innings, Teer (2-0) owns a 3.46 ERA and has 14 strikeouts over 13.0 innings, and Joseph Chavana has gone 0-2 to start the year despite a 3.00 ERA and 13 strikeouts in 15.0 innings of work.
POLL POSITION
• The Beavers collected four first-place votes and finished tied atop the NEWMAC preseason coaches' poll with defending regular season and tournament champions Wheaton.
• Babson had claimed at least a share of four consecutive regular season titles prior to finishing second in the league standings in 2022.
EARLY CHALLENGES AWAIT
• Including the three-game set with Trinity, nine of Babson's first 11 games of the season will come against nationally-ranked foes.
• The Green an White will take on No. 10/9 Baldwin Wallace on March 10, No. 23/29 North Central (Ill.) on March 11 and 14, No. 18/18 Denison on March 11 and No. 22/22 Wooster on March 12 and 16 in Port Charlotte, Fla.
SUCCESS IN THE LONE STAR STATE
• Manning batted .357 (5-for-14) with a double, a home run, five RBI and three runs scored in three games against Trinity last season.
• Cook doubled twice and walked five times in 14 plate appearances last February against the Tigers, while graduate student Jack Pirkl and junior Tanner Santos combined to score five runs in the three-game series.
• McLendon earned a pair of saves in last year's series and allowed just one hit while striking out three in 2.0 innings of relief.
BEAVER BITES
• Pirkl enters the season with a seven-game hitting streak dating back to April 27 of last year.
• Kelly finished the 2022 campaign with a hit in each of his last five starts and had at least one knock in 12 of the final 15 games to end last year.
• Sophomore Walter Sadowsky recorded at least one hit in 18 of his last 19 games last spring.
• Noone pitched at least 6.0 innings in each of his final eight starts on the mound a season ago.
NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers went 20-6 in 2022 when scoring the first run of the game.
• Babson was 17-1 when outhitting its opponents and 24-6 when scoring at least three runs.
• The Green and White also was 17-1 when leading after seven innings.
• Babson went 5-7 in games decided by one or two runs last spring.
UP NEXT
• The Beavers travel to Northborough, Mass., to take on Brandeis on Saturday, March 4 at 1 p.m.
