Baseball at Clark
Tuesday, April 18 | 3:30 p.m.
Granger Field | Worcester, Mass.

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 63-21 all-time against Clark in a series that dates back to 1983.
• The Beavers have won six consecutive games against the Cougars, which includes three straight victories at Granger Field going back to 2021.
• Four of the last eight games between the teams going back to 2018 have been decided by one or two runs.

LAST MEETING
• Sophomore Justin Guest went 2-for-4 with a double, a homer and a career-high five RBI to help Babson outslug Clark 14-10 on April 27, 2022, in Worcester, Mass.
• Junior Ike Kiely went 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored, while graduate student Jack Pirkl singled twice and knocked in a pair of runs for the Beavers, who pounded out 16 hits and scored 13 runs over the first three innings.
• Andrea Casbianca was 2-for-4 with a double, three RBI and two runs scored, Anthony Keefe singled twice and drove in two runs and Ryan Caulfield finished 3-for-4 and scored three times for the Cougars.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Babson (17-10, 6-3 NEWMAC) defeated Emerson, 12-6, in the rubber game of a three-game series with Emerson on Saturday afternoon at Govoni Field.
• Graduate student Ryan Noone was 4-for-5 with two RBI and three runs scored, Kiely went 2-for-3 with a double and three runs driven in and senior Michael Cook singled three times and scored four runs for the Beavers, who went in front for good with a six-run fifth inning.
• First-year Ryan Hvozdovic is batting .370 with four doubles, two home runs, 23 RBI and 22 runs scored, Cook is hitting .352 with five extra-base hits and 23 runs driven in, and junior Brant Savage enters the week with a .349 average to go along with five doubles, seven homers, 30 RBI And 25 runs scored.
• Junior Tristen Spalter is 2-2 with a 3.09 earned run average and 39 strikeouts in 46.2 innings, senior Stephen McLendon is 2-0 with one save and 16 strikeouts in 16.2 innings of work and classmate Tim Person has gone 1-2 with 11 strikeouts over 11.0 innings in a team-high 10 relief appearances.

SCOUTING THE COUGARS
• Clark (14-15, 5-4 NEWMAC) has dropped five of its last six games and is coming off a 3-2 loss in the series finale against Coast Guard on Saturday.
• Connor Rulnick went 2-for-3 with a double, a triple and an RBI and Caulfield singled twice and scored a run for the Cougars, who saw Maxwell Gitlin (4-1) suffer his first loss despite allowing just two runs over 7.0 innings.
• Caulfield is batting .323 with four extra-base hits, 13 stolen bases and 25 runs scored, Rulnick is hitting .318 with seven extra-base hits, 11 runs batted in and 14 runs scored, and junior Samuel Farrell boasts a .302 average to go along with 10 doubles, two triples, two homers, 14 RBI and 27 runs scored.
• Senior Nate Bonini is 2-1 with a 2.38 ERA in nine relief appearances, classmate Michael Carterud has gone 2-1 with one save and a 2.70 earned run average in 11 games, and fellow senior Max Moss (2-0, 2.88 ERA) has 30 strikeouts in 34.1 innings this spring.

CONFERENCE PLAY HITS THE MIDWAY POINT
• Nine games into its 17-game NEWMAC slate, Babson is 6-3 and sits in second place in the league standings, three games in back of 9-0 Wheaton.
• The top five qualify for next month's conference tournament and six teams are currently within three games of .500 with two weeks remaining in the regular season.

LEADING OFF
• Junior Tanner Santos has reached base safely in 26 of the last 27 games and ranks first in the NEWMAC in both walks (27) and stolen bases (16).
• He is also fifth in the conference with 28 runs scored and ranks eighth in the league with a .475 on-base percentage.

BEAVER BITES
• Hvozdovic (12), Savage (11) and Cook (9) lead the Green and White in multi-hit games and are all tied for fifth in the NEWMAC with 37 hits this spring.
• First-year Chris Basile has at least one hit in 12 of his last 13 starts going back to March 30.
• Person has not allowed a run in 7.2 innings over his last seven relief appearances and has recorded nine strikeouts while allowing just three hits over this stretch.
• Noone went 6-of-13 (.462) with a home run, six RBI and five runs scored in the Beavers' three-game series against Emerson.

PITCHING AND DEFENSE
• The Beavers enter the week ranked first in Division III in strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.04) and walks allowed per nine innings (1.82), are fourth in WHIP (1.22), 28th in fielding percentage (.970) and 39th in team ERA (4.17).

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers are 15-1 this season and 34-4 over the last two years when scoring six or more runs.
• Babson is 13-3 this spring when outhitting its opponents.
• The Green and White is 32-2 since the start of the 2022 campaign when leading after seven innings.
• The Beavers are 15-3 on the year when recording at least two extra-base hits.

UP NEXT
• Babson travels to Medford, Mass., to take on Tufts at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.