Softball vs. Smith
NEWMAC Tournament | Game 2
Tuesday, May 7 | 2:30 p.m. 
Potter Field | Springfield, Mass. 

WHAT TO KNOW
•    Babson travels to Springfield to meet Smith in its opening game of the 2024 NEWMAC Tournament. 
•    The winner will advance to face top-seeded Springfield (28-8-1) later on Tuesday afternoon, while the loser will play an elimination game on Friday. 

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE 
Monday, May 6
Game 1: No. 6 WPI 8, No. 7 Coast Guard 6

Tuesday, May 7
Game 2: No. 4 Babson vs. No. 5 Smith, 2:30 p.m. (at Springfield)
Game 3: No. 6 WPI vs. No. 3 MIT, 2:30 p.m. (at Wheaton)
Game 4: Game 2 winner at No. 1 Springfield, 4:30 p.m.
Game 5: Game 3 winner at No. 2 Wheaton, 4:30 p.m. 

Friday, May 10 (at Springfield)
Game 6: Loser Game 2 vs. Loser Game 3, 10 a.m. 
Game 7: Loser Game 4 vs. Loser Game 5, 12 p.m. 
Game 8: Winner Game 6 vs. Winner Game 7, 2 p.m. 
Game 9: Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5, 4 p.m. 

Saturday, May 11 (at highest remaining seed)
Game 10: Game 8 winner vs. Game 9 loser, 12 p.m. 
Game 11: Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner, 2 p.m. 

Sunday, May 12 (at Saturday's host)
Game 12: if necessary

SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson is 36-33 all-time against Smith in a series that dates back to 1988.
•    The Beavers have won 24 of their last 30 games against the Pioneers since 2008.  
•    The Green and White split its regular season doubleheader with Smith winning the opener 8-2 before suffering a 7-3 loss in game two. 

POSTSEASON HISTORY
•    Babson and Smith will meet in the conference playoffs for the first time since 2006 on Tuesday. 
•    The Beavers are 4-3 all-time in conference tournament play against the Pioneers with six of the seven games having been decided by just one run. 
•    The Green and White recorded three consecutive 1-0 victories over Smith in the 2004, 2005 and 2006 NEWMAC Tournaments. 

LAST MEETING 
•    Juno Shantz went 2-for-4 with a home run and three RBI and Lucy Helms allowed just two earned runs in a complete-game effort as Smith defeated Babson, 7-3, in game two of a doubleheader on April 12 in Northampton, Mass. 
•    Lexi Balam broke a 2-2 deadlock with a two-run double in the bottom of the fourth and Shantz followed up her home run in the fifth with a two-run single in the sixth for the Pioneers, who produced four two-out RBI in the win. 
•    First-year Charlotte Raymond went 2-for-4 with an RBI single and classmate Ruby Madia singled twice and knocked in a run for the Beavers, who jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    Fourth-seeded Babson (24-16) enters the season riding a four-game winning streak after finishing off a sweep of WPI with a 3-1 victory on Saturday. 
•    Graduate students Kate Karamouzis and Cassidy Musco both drove in runs in the bottom of the sixth and first-year Katie Vlacich tossed four shutout innings of relief in the circle for the Beavers, who defeated the Engineers 4-0 in game one. 
•    Junior Sara Moore is batting .355 with six doubles, two triples, 21 stolen bases, 14 RBI and 25 runs scored, first-year Emily Walsh is hitting .318 with three extra-base hits, 18 stolen bases, 17 RBI and 17 runs scored, and Musco has raised her average to .304 with four doubles, 13 stolen bases, 10 RBI and 17 runs scored. 
•    Senior Moira O'Reilly (15-7, 1.41 ERA) has won her last 10 decisions and leads the league in strikeouts (213) and shutouts (8) to go along with a 1.00 WHIP in 149.0 innings, while Vlacich is 9-9 with a 3.50 ERA and two shutouts in 110.0 innings on the year. 

SCOUTING THE PIONEERS
•    Fifth-seeded Smith (22-15-1) has won three of its last four games after wrapping up a sweep of Coast Guard with a 4-3 victory on Saturday. 
•    Helms went 2-for-3 with a two-run homer and struck out four while allowing just four hits in a complete-game effort for the Pioneers, who have now homered five times over their last four outings. 
•    Shantz is batting .465 with 11 homers, nine doubles, 36 RBI and 35 runs scored, Piper Corey is hitting .297 with six extra-base hits, 16 RBI and 18 runs scored, and CeCe Alaniz has a .294 average to go along with nine doubles, three home runs and 25 runs batted in. 
•    Emilie Doty is 12-7 with a 2.96 ERA and 103 strikeouts in 111.0 innings, while Helms has gone 4-6 with a 3.85 earned run average over 71.0 innings of work. 

CANAN REACHES 600 WINS
•    Thanks to his team's sweep of Clark on Friday afternoon, Babson head coach Dave Canan became the 23rd active Division III head coach with 600 career wins. 
•    Since arriving prior to the 2000 season, Canan has gone 602-384-1 for a .610 winning percentage, and has produced 12 seasons of at least 25 victories while finishing below .500 just twice. 

MOORE NAMED NEWMAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
•    After producing a pair of multi-hit games and going 10-for-16 (.625) at the plate with one double, four stolen bases, three RBI and five scored, Moore was tabbed as the league's player of the week on Monday. 
•    She had a .611 on-base percentage and slugged .688 over five games to help the Beavers end the regular season with four straight wins. 

REWRITING THE RECORD BOOK
•    Already the program's leader with 753 strikeouts and 23 shutouts, O'Reilly recorded her 60th win on Saturday to match Ali Reilly '18 as the program's all-time leader. 
•    Karamouzis has drawn a career-high 25 bases on balls this season and enters the postseason ranked third in program history behind only Jack Enos '13 (82) and Catie Funk '13 (80) with her 78 career walks. 

TOURNAMENT TESTED
•    O'Reilly is 9-6 with a 1.94 ERA, a 0.99 WHIP and 105 strikeouts in 97.1 innings in the postseason over the last three seasons. 
•    In 13 games NCAA and NEWMAC Tournament games over the last two years, Karamouzis is batting .447 with three doubles, two triples, 11 RBI and seven runs scored, while Moore is hitting .405 with 11 runs scored from the leadoff spot. 

STREAKING INTO THE POSTSEASON
•    Karamouzis has reached base in 15 consecutive outings and is batting .423 with a .659 on-base percentage during this stretch, while Moore and junior Athena Hadjipanayis have both reached safely in nine and seven straight contests, respectively. 
•    Moore enters Tuesday's clash with Smith riding a five-game hitting streak, while Musco and Hadjipanayis both have at least one knock in four straight outings. 

BEAVER BITES
•    Moore is first on the team with 12 multi-hit games, while Walsh has at least two hits in nine contests and Musco owns seven multi-hit performances. 
•    Raymond, who leads the Green and White with 23 runs batted in, has a team-high seven multi-RBI games. 
•    Hadjipanayis leads the Beavers in both doubles (9) and extra-base hits (11). 
•    Moore (21), Hadjipanayis (20), Walsh (18), graduate student Michaela Russell (14) and Musco (13) all rank among the top 10 in the NEWMAC in stolen bases. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    The Beavers are 10-7 in one-run games and 12-8 on the year in games decided by two or fewer runs. 
•    Babson is 21-1 on the year when allowing two runs or fewer this spring. 
•    The Green and White is 19-5 when scoring first and 10-2 when putting up a run in the first inning. 
•    The Beavers are 15-4 when outhitting their opponents. 
•    Babson is 21-4 when it is leading or tied after five innings this season. 

UP NEXT
•    The winner of Tuesday's contest will face top-seeded Smith at 4:30 p.m., while the loser will face an elimination game at 10 a.m. on Friday.