NORTON, Mass.—Junior Brant Savage (Charlton, Mass.) hit a three-run homer in the top of the first inning and classmate Tristen Spalter (Sergeantsville, N.J.) struck out nine over 8.2 innings of work to help third-seeded Babson College defeat top-seeded Wheaton College, 9-3, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament action on Sunday afternoon at Sidell Stadium.

With the win, Babson improves to 24-16 overall and needs one win on Monday to claim its first conference tournament title since 2018. No. 8/11 Wheaton, which lost for the first time in 11 games, is now 34-6 on the year.

Savage finished the day with two hits and scored a pair of runs, graduate student Jack Pirkl (Brightwaters, N.Y.) was 2-for-4 with a triple and two RBI and senior Patrick Manning (Weymouth, Mass.) singled and knocked in a pair of runs for the Beavers. Classmate Michael Cook (Whitman, Mass.) also was 3-for-5 on the day with a run scored in support of Spalter, who gave up three runs while scattering 10 hits to improve to 3-2 with the victory.

Senior Mike Maher (Jefferson, Mass.) went 4-for-5 with an RBI and classmate Cavan Brady (Sheffield, Mass.) was 2-for-2 with a home run, two walks and a run scored to pace the Lyons. Fellow senior Zach Clesas (Johnston, R.I.) dropped to 6-2 on the year with the loss giving up six runs, four of them earned, on six hits in 4.1 innings.

Wheaton made back-to-back errors to start the game and Savage made them pay with a three-run blast, his 11th of the year, to left to put the Green and White in front. The Beavers added to their lead in the fourth as Pirkl tripled to deep center to bring home first-year Ryan Hvozdovic (Hillsborough, N.J.) and Manning and then scored on a sacrifice fly by junior Tanners Santos (Bethany, Conn.) to make it 6-0.

Brady led off the bottom of the fourth with a solo shot to left and senior Nick Croteau (Cumberland, R.I.) plated junior AJ Guindon (Coventry, R.I.) with a sacrifice fly in the fifth as Wheaton cut its deficit to 6-2. Spalter worked around a leadoff double in the sixth, got an inning-ending double play in the seventh and struck out the side after walking Brady to start the eighth.

The Babson offense rewarded him with three more runs in the ninth to put the game away. Savage singled and later scored on junior Ike Kiely's (Falmouth, Maine) infield chopper and Manning came through with a two-out, two-run single to left for a 9-2 advantage.

Spalter came within an out of his first complete game of the season before allowing consecutive hits to Guindon and Maher. Senior Tim Person (Hudson, Mass.) came on in relief and got Croteau to ground out to first on his first pitch for the final out.

Babson will travel to Wheaton for the NEWMAC Tournament final on Monday at 11 a.m. Should the Lyons win, the teams would play a winner-take-all final at 2 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are 12-13 all-time against Wheaton in the postseason and Sunday's victory snapped a nine-game skid in the all-time series dating back to the 2021 NEWMAC Tournament.
• Savage's 11 homers are tied for third in single-season program history and just two shy of Ryan Arena's '18 record of 13 in 2017.
• Babson is 21-1 this season when leading after seven innings.
• The Beavers have gone 14-3 on the year when playing error-free baseball.