WORCESTER, Mass.—Senior Tim Noone (Needham, Mass.) tossed a complete game and seven different players recorded a hit as third-seeded Babson College defeated second-seeded Clark University, 4-2, in the opening round of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament on Saturday afternoon at Granger Field.

With the win, Babson improves to 23-16 and will face No. 8/11 Wheaton on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. in Norton, Mass. Clark (18-20) will meet fourth-seeded MIT in an elimination game at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Senior Michael Cook (Whitman, Mass.) homered, first-year Ryan Hvozdovic (Hillsborough, N.J.) singled twice and classmate Chris Basile (Miami Beach, Fla.) singled and drove in a run for the Beavers. Noone recorded his second complete game of the season, striking out six and scattering seven hits to improve to 6-2 on the year with the win.

Sophomore Tyler Jones (West Haven, Conn.) and junior Samuel Farrell (Holliston, Mass.) both homered for the Cougars. Fellow junior Maxwell Gitlin (Los Angeles, Calif.) allowed just one earned run on eight hits while striking three and walking three over 9.0 innings and drops to 6-2 overall with the loss.

Down 1-0 after Jones' solo blast in the first, the Green and White took advantage of two walks, a hit and an error to score three times in the third. Sophomore Justin Guest (West Windsor, N.J.) walked and advanced to second on senior Patrick Manning's (Weymouth, Mass.) single before coming around to score on a throwing error to tie the game. Manning scored on Basile's fielder's choice to make it 2-1 and Basile got in a run down allowing Pirkl to score from third for a two-run advantage.

Farrell hit a solo homer to left to make it 3-2 with one out in the fifth before Noone retired six consecutive batters and then got a 4-6-3 double play to end the seventh. Farrell led off the eighth with a single and stole second before Noone picked him off and then got a ground out and a strikeout looking to maintain the Beavers' one-run lead.

Cook tacked on a key insurance run with his third homer of the year to lead off the top of the ninth.

GAME NOTES
• Babson is 66-21 all-time against Clark and Saturday's game was the first between the teams in the NEWMAC Tournament since 2008.
• The Beavers have won nine straight games against Clark although seven of the last 11 contests between the teams have been decided by two runs or fewer.
• Noone's 73 strikeouts this year are the third most in Babson single-season history behind only Jason Kosow '04 (77 in 2004) and Teddy Carey '18 (79 in 2017).
• Babson is 5-7 this season in games decided by two runs or fewer.
• The Beavers are now 12-2 this spring when giving up two runs or fewer.