BABSON PARK, Mass.— Junior Sophia Pak (New Rochelle, N.Y.) went 6-for-7 on the day and knocked in the game-winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning of the opener as Babson College split a softball doubleheader with Wheaton College in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) action Monday afternoon at Alumni Field.

The Beavers rallied from a 4-1 deficit in game one with a four-run sixth inning to pull out a 5-4 victory, but the Lyons capitalized on a first-inning unearned run to capture a 1-0 victory in game two to earn the split.

With the outcome, the Beavers move to 14-8 overall and 6-4 in the NEWMAC while Wheaton is now 20-8 overall and 5-5 in conference play.

Game 1 – Babson 5, Wheaton 4

Pak went 4-for-4 with an RBI, senior Sara Moore (Kennett Square, Pa.) had two hits, an RBI and two runs scored, and first-year Belle DiCampello (Pottstown, Pa.) collected a pair of knocks and an RBI for the Beavers. Graduate student Moira O'Reilly (Columbus, Ohio) earned the win (4-3) for the Green and White with a complete-game effort, allowing just one earned run on six hits and three walks while fanning six.

Senior Juliette Zito (Woodbridge, Conn.) went 2-for-4 with two RBI for the Lyons, including a triple. Sophomore Ella Molinari (Grafton, Mass.) had a double as five different Lyons accounted for the team's six hits. Sophomore Sofia De La Rosa (Middle Village, N.Y.) took the loss (9-5), striking out six in six innings of work.

After Babson took a 1-0 lead in the third inning on a Wheaton throwing error, the Lyons took a 3-1 advantage with three unearned runs in the top of the fourth. Two runs came home on an infield error with the bases loaded and Zito later delivered an RBI single to right. The Lyons extended the lead to 4-1 in the top of the sixth when Zito laced an RBI triple to the gap in left center field.

With two outs and one runner on in the bottom of the inning, graduate student Cameron Whiteford (Centerville, Md.) and Moore hit back-to-back singles to score a run. Another run came home on a throwing error after a single by senior Athena Hadjipanayis (Rye, N.Y.), and the Beavers came all the way back to take the lead on an RBI fielder's choice by DiCampello and Pak's run-scoring single to left.

O'Reilly closed out the win with a perfect seventh inning, striking out the last two batters to preserve the victory.

Game 2 –Wheaton 1, Babson 0

The nightcap was a pitcher's duel between Whiteford and Wheaton junior Peyton Blankenheim-Brown (Rio Linda, Calif.), who both went the distance. Blankenheim-Brown earned the win (8-3), allowing just four hits with no walks while striking out seven, while Whiteford suffered the hard-luck loss (6-4) despite giving up just one unearned run on four hits and one walk, also fanning seven.

Pak went 2-for-3 for the Beavers, and Moore and first-year Maddy DeLong (Cranford, N.J.) produced one hit each. Molinari had a single and a double for the visitors and senior Grace DiBacco (Selkirk, N.Y.) and sophomore Emma Boucher (Derry, N.H.) had one hit each.

Wheaton plated the only run in the top of the first inning with the aid of a series of Babson miscues. Zito reached on an infield error to lead off, was sacrificed to second by went to third on another infield error and raced home to score on a passed ball.

Babson stranded a runner at third in the bottom of the first, and While left Molinari at second after a two-out double and left two runners on in the top of the fifth. Neither team mounted a threat the rest of the way, and Blankenheim-Brown closed the door on the Beavers after Pak's one-out single in the seventh, getting a strikeout and a pop out to secure the win.

Babson returns to the diamond with a non-conference doubleheader at Trinity on Wednesday, beginning at 2 p.m. in Hartford, Conn. Wheaton plays a non-conference twinbill at Emmanuel on Tuesday, starting at 5 p.m. in Boston.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers and Lyons have split their last four regular season doubleheaders since 2022, and Babson is now 28-50 all-time against the Lyons in a series that dates back to 1987.
• The Green and White were shut out for the first time this season after getting blanked just four times in 45 outings last spring.
• Pak extended her hitting streak to five games with her team-leading 10th and 11th multi-hit outings and her first career 4-hit performance while raising her batting average to a NEWMAC-leading .530 through 21 games.