Baseball vs. MIT
NEWMAC Tournament Play-In
Tuesday, May 7 | 3:30 p.m.
Govoni Field | Babson Park, Mass.
WHAT TO KNOW
• Babson, which was third in last week's NCAA Region I rankings, begins NEWMAC Tournament play against MIT on Tuesday.
• The winner will join Salve Regina, Coast Guard and either Wheaton or WPI in the double elimination portion of the tournament, which begins on Friday.
SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 61-41-1 all-time against MIT in a series that dates back to 190.
• The Beavers won both regular season contests and have won four of their last five against the Engineers over the last two seasons.
• The Green and White has won four of its last five games versus MIT at Govoni Field.
POSTSEASON HISTORY
• Babson is 12-9 all-time against MIT in the conference playoffs, which includes a 3-6 in games when both teams are facing elimination.
• Tuesday's contest will be just the second between the teams going back to 2021 after they played eight times in the postseason from 2016-19.
• The Beavers are 6-4 versus the Engineers at Govoni Field in the postseason.
LAST MEETING
• Senior
Tanner Santos went 3-for-4 with three runs scored and juniors
Justin Guest and
Walter Sadowsky both knocked in a pair of runs as the Beavers defeated MIT, 10-3, on April 2 in Babson Park.
• Senior
Brant Savage went 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored, while sophomore
James Clark struck out four and gave up three runs on four hits over 7.0 innings for Babson, which jumped on top with a five-run first inning.
• Michael Finich hit a solo homer, Kennan Gumbs went 2-for-3 with a run scored and Tyler Godfrey singled and knocked in two runs for the Engineers.
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Third-seeded Babson (25-10) has won five consecutive games and defeated UMass Boston, 6-4 in 11 innings, on Sunday afternoon.
• Savage was 3-for-6 with a double and two RBI, Guest singled twice and reached base four times, and graduate student
John Nowak hit a walk-off two-run homer in the bottom of the 11th for the Beavers, who got three shutout innings of relief from first-year
Jason Finkelstein.
• Savage is batting .347 with 19 doubles, six home runs, 32 RBI and 26 runs scored, Guest is hitting .324 with seven doubles, two homers, 18 RBI and 24 runs scored, and graduate student
Luke Tanner enters the postseason with a .310 average to go along with 11 doubles, two triples, four dingers, 34 RBI and 28 runs scored in 35 starts.
• Graduate student
Greg Nieskens is 2-2 with a 3.65 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP in 49.1 innings pitched, junior
Luke McClintock is 1-2 with a 2.40 ERA in 30.0 innings of work and sophomore
Zander Teator (4-1, 3.24 ERA) boasts a 0.72 WHIP and is holding opponents to a .138 average while recording 21 strikeouts in 16.2 innings out of the bullpen.
SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
• Sixth-seeded MIT (17-19) swept Clark on Saturday to secure the final spot in the NEWMAC Tournament before suffering a 15-2 loss to No. 1 Endicott on Sunday.
• Finch hit a two-run homer in the top of the first, Gumbs had a double and Godfrey went 2-for-4 at the dish for the Engineers, who used seven different pitchers in the loss.
• Teddy Schoenfeld is batting .372 with 12 extra-base hits, a league-high 24 stolen baes, 24 RBI and 40 runs scored, Kyle Sonandres is hitting .346 with seven doubles, two triples, two homers and 36 runs batted in, and Finch owns a .323 average to go along with 10 doubles, a conference-high 11 home runs, 30 RBI and 23 runs scored.
• Karl Meyer (2-2, 2.66 ERA) has allowed just two earned runs over his last 23.2 innings and has recorded 66 strikeouts in 50.2 innings on the year, Brian Rapanan (3-2, 4.08 ERA) has 43 strikeouts in 39.2 innings and Ben Burke is 4-0 with a 5.26 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 25.1 innings over 11 appearances on the year.
CLARK EARNS CONFERENCE RECOGNITION
• After recording a career-high nine strikeouts and allowing just one hit over 7.0 shutout innings on Saturday against Springfield, Clark was tabbed as the NEWMAC Pitcher of the Week on Monday.
• He retired 17 of the first 19 batters he faced and carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning to improve to 5-2 on the year with the victory.
SUCCESS AGAINST THE ENGINEERS
• Savage is batting .455 (10-for-22) with three doubles, two homers, nine RBI and seven runs scored over his last five games against MIT.
• Senior
Ike Kiely is batting .357 (10-for-28) with three homers, nine RBI and 11 runs scored over his last eight games versus the Engineers.
• Santos, who has missed the last eight games for the Beavers, went 6-for-9 (.667) at the plate with a pair of doubles, six stolen bases, one RBI and four runs scored in this year's regular season games against MIT.
• Tanner, who homered twice in the 14-8 win in Cambridge on March 26, and Guest both drove in four runs in two regular season matchups.
SAVAGE BREAKS DOUBLES RECORD
• With his opposite field RBI double in the bottom of the sixth against UMass Boston on Sunday, Savage set a new single-season program record with his 19th two-bagger of the year.
• The previous mark of 18 doubles was set by Dave Ahern '11 during his All-America campaign as a senior back in 2011.
STREAKING INTO THE POSTSEASON
• Tanner owns an 11-game hitting streak and is batting .360 with eight doubles, a triple, a home run, 10 RBI and 10 runs scored during this stretch.
• Nowak has reached base in each of his 24 starts this season and is batting .405 with two doubles, two homers and 10 RBI to go along with a .522 on-base percentage and a .676 slugging percentage over his last 10 outings.
PLAYING FROM IN FRONT
• Since falling behind in a 4-3 loss game-one loss to WPI back on April 21, the Beavers have scored first in 10 consecutive games.
• Babson has outscored its opponents 68-32 during this stretch, which includes a 27-2 edge over the first three innings
NUMBERS TO KNOW
• Babson is 18-1 on the year at Govoni Field.
• The Beavers are 10-3 this spring in games decided by one or two runs.
• The Green and White is 21-2 when allowing five runs or fewer.
• Babson is 20-1 when leading after six innings.
• The Beavers have gone 21-2 this season when their pitching staff allows two or fewer extra-base hits.
SURVIVE AND ADVANCE
• The winner of Tuesday's contest will travel to second-seeded Coast Guard on Friday to begin the double-elimination portion of the tournament.
