BABSON PARK, Mass.—Graduate student
John Nowak (Pelham, N.Y.) hit a two-run in the bottom of the 11th inning to help Babson College defeat UMass Boston, 6-4, in non-conference baseball action on Sunday afternoon at Govoni Field.
Babson, which is third in last week's NCAA Region I rankings, has won its last five games to improve to 25-10 overall. UMass Boston, which was fourth in the Region II rankings, has dropped two straight outings to slip to 24-14 on the year.
Nowak had two hits and walked twice, senior
Brant Savage (Charlton, Mass.) went 3-for-6 with two RBI and set a new single-season record with his 19th double of the year, and classmate
Luca Rubin (Los Angeles, Calif.) singled, walked and scored twice for the Beavers. Sophomore
Connor Doan (Pasadena, Texas) settled for a no-decision after giving up two runs over 5.0 innings, while first-year
Jason Finkelstein (Walpole, Mass.) tossed three shutout innings of relief to push his record to 7-1 on the season.
Sophomore Justin Gouveia (Dartmouth, Mass.) homered twice and knocked in three runs, while senior Luke Leavitt (Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass.) was 2-for-4 with a run scored for the Beacons. Senior Brendan Ferrari (Dunstable, Mass.), the last of 10 different pitchers to make an appearance, shouldered the loss to fall to 0-4 this spring.
The Green and White stranded a pair of runners in the first before taking the lead int the second. Senior
Jack Julian (Manchester, Mass.) opened the scoring with an RBI single, Rubin reached on an error and later scored on graduate student
Luke Tanner's (Los Angeles, Calif.) RBI ground out, and Savage followed with a two-out RBI single to center to make it 3-0.
The Beavers left the bases loaded in the fourth and Gouveia made them pay with a two-out, two-run homer to right to cut the UMass Boston deficit to 3-2 in the top of the fifth. Savage came through with another clutch two-out hit, doubling to right to bring home Rubin to push the lead back to 4-2 in the bottom of the sixth.
Junior
Luke McClintock (South Hamilton, Mass.) five of the six batters he faced in the sixth and seventh before the Beacons tied the game with a two-run eighth. Gouveia hit a solo shot to dead center to make it 4-3 and senior Bostyn Burris (Highland Village, Texas) scored from third when the visitors executed a two-out double steal.
UMass Boston left runners on base in both the ninth and 10th innings before the Green and White won the game in the 11th. Junior
Justin Guest (West Windsor, N.J.) laced a one-out single up the middle and Nowak followed with a second homer of the year to left to give the Beavers their fourth walk-off win of the year.
Babson opens the NEWMAC Tournament with a play-in game against MIT on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. at Govoni Field, while Umass Boston faces Rhode Island College in its LEC Tournament opener on Wednesday.
GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are 27-13 all-time against the Beacons and have won the last four games between the teams.
• Babson is now 3-1 in extra-inning contests and is 10-3 on the year in games decided by either one or two runs.
• Finkelstein's seven victories are the most by a Babson rookie since 2005 when Sam Whalen '08 won eight times.
• Savage's 19 doubles bettered the previous mark of 18 set by Dave Ahern '11 back 2011.
