BABSON PARK, Mass.—Babson College and visiting MIT traded strong starting pitching performances on the way to splitting their New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) baseball doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at Govoni Field.

The Beavers, who took two of three games in the series, won the opener 5-2 before falling to the Engineers in game two, 5-3.

Babson is now 20-12 overall and 9-4 in conference play while MIT moves to 11-16 overall and 6-7 in the NEWMAC.

Game 1: Babson 5, MIT 2
Senior Anthony St. John (Hopewell, N.J.) allowed two runs and struck out five in a complete-game effort to improve to 5-1 on the year for the Beavers. Junior Brant Savage (Charlton, Mass.) homered for the second day in a row and graduate student Ryan Noone (Belmont, Mass.), junior Tanner Santos (Bethany, Conn.) and first-year Chris Basile (Miami Beach, Fla.) each finished with two hits in the win.

Senior Graham Cartwright (La Jolla, Calif.) went 3-for-4 with two RBI, while classmate Kyle Sonandres (Torrance, Calif.) and junior Kennan Gumbs (New York, N.Y.) added two hits apiece for the Engineers. Sophomore Ethan Siegel (Austin, Texas) shouldered the loss after giving up three runs on three hits in 3.2 innings of relief.

Cartwright staked MIT to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first with a two-run single to right center. The Green and White stranded seven runners on base over the first three innings before cutting its deficit to 2-1 on Savage's 10th homer of the year to start the fifth. St. John escaped a bases-loaded jam in the top of the sixth and the Beavers went in front for good with a two-run seventh.

Senior Jack Pirkl (Brightwaters, N.Y.) started the frame with a single and later scored on an RBI ground out by first-year Ryan Hvozdovic (Hillsborough, N.J.), and Basile drove in Santos with a two-out single to right to make it 3-2. Babson tacked on two more runs in the eighth as Pirkl plated junior Ike Kiely (Falmouth, Maine) with a sacrifice fly, while Santos followed with an RBI knock to center for a 5-2 advantage.

Game 2: MIT 5, Babson 2
Savage went 2-for-5 with a double and two RBI and Kiely singled twice and scored a run for Babson, which was limited to six hits in the nightcap. First-year Connor Doan (Pasadena, Texas), who went four innings striking out four and giving up three runs, dropped to 1-2 with the loss.

Junior Karl Meyer (Indianapolis, Ind.) struck out six and gave up three runs on six hits in a complete-game, 143-pitch effort for MIT. Classmate Teddy Schoenfeld (Boulder, Colo.) went 4-for-5 at the plate with a home run, two RBI and two runs scored to pace the Engineers' 12-hit attack.

Schoenfeld homered with one out in the first and Cartwright extended the visitors' lead to 2-0 with a two-out single to left in the third. Babson stranded a pair of runners in scoring position in the fourth and MIT took advantage in the fifth as Sonandres knocked in two more runs with a base hit to right center for a 4-0 advantage.

The Green and White got on the board in the sixth when Savage scored on Basile's sacrifice fly in foul territory and got the potential tying run to the plate down 5-1 with one out in the bottom of the ninth. Savage laced a two-run single to center to make it 5-3 with runners on the corners but Sonandres made a diving play to snag Hvozdovic's bid for a single behind the second-base bag and Savage was called out at second on a bang-bang play to end the game.

Babson returns to action on Monday when it travels to Johnson & Wales at 4 p.m., while MIT hosts WPI on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are 59-41-1 all-time against MIT and have won 15 of the last 21 games between the teams.
• Savage's 10 home runs are the fourth most in single-season program history and he has gone deep three times over Babson's last five outings.
• The Beavers are now 11-2 at home this season.
• Babson failed to walk in game two on Saturday snapping a string of 34 games with at least one base on balls dating back to last May.