Softball at MIT
NEWMAC Tournament | Game 11
Sunday, May 11 | 2 p.m. 
Briggs Field | Cambridge, Mass. 

WHAT TO KNOW
•    Babson bounced back from Thursday's one-run loss to MIT by defeating Wheaton in a NEWMAC Tournament elimination game on Saturday afternoon. 
•    The Beavers must defeat the Engineers twice on Sunday to claim their first NEWMAC Tournament championship since 2021, while MIT needs just one win to claim its third consecutive conference title.

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Monday, May 5 
Game 1: No. 7 Coast Guard 7, No. 6 Emerson 0

Wednesday, May 7
Game 2: No. 5 Wheaton 6, No. 4 WPI 0
Game 3: No. 3 Springfield 3, No. 7 Coast Guard 2
Game 4: No. 1 MIT 4, No. 5 Wheaton 2
Game 5: No. 2 Babson 2, No. 3 Springfield 1 (10 inn.)

Friday, May 8 (all games at MIT)
Game 6: No. 5 Wheaton 4, No. 7 Coast Guard 3
Game 7: No. 4 WPI 10, No. 3 Springfield 8
Game 8: No. 5 Wheaton 5, No. 4 WPI 2
Game 9: No. 1 MIT 2, No. 2 Babson 1

Saturday, May 9 (at MIT)
Game 10: No. 2 Babson 4, No. 5 Wheaton 3

Sunday, May 10 (at MIT)
Game 11: No. 2 Babson at No. 1 MIT, 12 p.m.
Game 12: if necessary, 2 p.m. 
 
SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson is 47-31 all-time against MIT in a series that dates back to 1988.
•    The Beavers are just 2-5 versus the Engineers over the last two seasons although the teams split their regular season doubleheader back on April 9 in Cambridge. 
•    The Green and White is 8-9 against MIT at Briggs Field going back to 2017. 

POSTSESAON HISTORY
•    Babson is 3-9 all-time against MIT in NEWMAC Tournament play and Sunday's contest will be the 11th between the teams in the postseason since 2017. 
•    The Engineers have won eighth in a row versus the Beavers in the conference playoffs, which includes five victories by a single run and two in extra innings since 2018. 
•    Babson and MIT have will meet in the championship round for the third time in the last seven editions of the NEWMAC Tournament going back to 2018 on Sunday. 
•    The Engineers defeated the Green and White 2-1 in eight innings in the winner's bracket final and 4-0 in the NEWMAC Championship game last May. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    Second-seeded Babson (26-14) advanced to its second consecutive NEWMAC Tournament final with a 4-3 win over fifth-seeded Wheaton in an elimination game on Saturday. 
•    Senior Athena Hadjipanayis, sophomore Charlotte Raymond and first-years Belle DiCampello and Maddy DeLong each knocked in a run in the first inning, while graduate students Moira O'Reilly and Cameron Whiteford combined to record 10 strikeouts for the Beavers, who threw the potential game-tying run out at home as part of a double play in the top of the seventh inning. 
•    Junior Sophia Pak is batting .469 with three doubles, two triples, a team-high 24 RBI and 21 runs scored, senior Sara Moore is hitting .423 with four extra-base hits, 16 RBI and team-highs of 32 stolen bases and 34 runs scored, and first-year Belle DiCampello owns a .300 average to go along with a home run, five doubles, 21 RBI and 18 runs scored. 
•    O'Reilly is 9-5 with a 1.54 ERA and 120 strikeouts in 109.0 innings pitched this spring, while Whiteford is 13-7 with a 1.83 ERA, five shutouts and 126 strikeouts in 122.2 innings on the year.

SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
•    Top-seeded MIT (26-10) has won 13 of its last 15 games after edging Babson 2-1 in Thursday's winner's bracket final. 
•    Caroline Langmeyer struck out four and allowed just one run on five hits in a complete-game effort, and Maggie Feng was 2-for-2 with an RBI and a run scored for the Engineers, who also got an RBI single from Delaney Benevides and took advantage of two errors by the Beavers to push across the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning.
•    Benevides is batting .434 with two extra-base hits, 19 RBI, 30 stolen bases and 24 runs scored, Ava Ladd is hitting .402 with eight doubles, six triples, three home runs, 33 RBI and 31 runs scored, and Mikayla Cable boasts a .384 average to go along with six doubles, four homers, 27 RBI and 31 runs scored. 
•    Langmeyer is 16-2 with a 1.99 ERA, four shutouts and 72 strikeouts over 116.1 innings, while Katie Katsuyama has gone 5-4 with a 2.80 ERA in 50.0 innings pitched this spring. 

MOORE EARNS CONFERENCE, NATIONAL HONORS
•    After batting .684 (13-for-19) with five multi-hit games, Moore was tabbed as the league's player of the week on Monday and was selected as the NFCA Division III Player of the Week on Tuesday. 
•    She had one double, two RBI, six runs scored and was 10-for-10 in stolen base attempts as the Beavers won their final three games of the week. 

BEAVERS IN THE POSTSEASON
•    Babson has captured four NEWMAC championships (2004, 2005, 2017, 2021) and has won at least two games in seven of the last eight tournaments going back to 2016. 
•    In addition to their 2017 and 2021 titles, the Beavers also reached the championship round of the tournament in both 2018 and 2024.
•    The Beavers are 8-5 in NEWMAC Tournament elimination games going back to 2017. 

RISING UP THE RECORD BOOKS
•    Already the program's all-time leader with 101 stolen bases, Moore swiped her 32nd base of the season on Saturday to match her own single-season record 3 set back in 2023. Her 262 total bases also rank fifth on the Beavers' career list. 
•    Moore's bunt single in the bottom of the first inning was the 223rd hit of her career, which ties her for second place in program history with Andrea Cartullo '07. 
•    O'Reilly ranks second among active Division III pitchers with 896 career strikeouts in addition to ranking third in innings pitched (673.1) and strikeouts per seven innings (9.32), and sixth with 71 career victories in the circle. 

HIT PARADE
•    Pak and Moore are tied for first in the NEWMAC with 60 hits apiece and are the sixth Babson duo in program history with at least 50 hits in a season and the to record at least 60 knocks in the same season.
•    The Beavers' single-season record for hits is 63 set by Cartullo in 2006 and matched by Funk in 2013 and Moore in 2023. 
•    Moore enters Sunday riding a 15-game hitting streak, while Pak has at least one hit in 14 consecutive games. 

TOURNAMENT TESTED
•    O'Reilly entered this year's championship with an 11-8 record to go along with a 2.05 earned run average and 124 strikeouts in 116.0 innings pitched over 20 career postseason appearances in the circle. 
•    Moore is batting .357 with two doubles, one RBI, 11 runs scored and seven stolen bases in 18 career postseason outings, while Hadjipanayis went 5-for-14 (.357) at the plate with three runs scored in five NEWMAC Tournament games last season. 
•    Raymond also hit a three-run homer in her NEWMAC Tournament debut as the Beavers opened last year's championship with a 10-2 victory over Smith. 

TRENDS TO WATCH
•    Hadjipanayis has reached base in 10consecutive games and is batting .333 (9-for-27) during this stretch. 
•    Moore leads the team with 20 multi-hit games and has at least one hit and one stolen base in nine of her last 11 outings.
•    Pak has recorded multiple hits in 16 contests and her .469 average entering the weekend is the highest by any Babson player since 1994.
•    In 23.2 innings over Babson's first three games of the tournament, O'Reilly and Whiteford boast a 0.89 ERA, a 0.84 WHIP and are holding opposing hitters to a .176 average. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    The Beavers are 23-2 on the year when scoring at least three runs. 
•    Babson is 22-6 this spring and 43-11 over the last two seasons when scoring the first run of the game. 
•    The Green and White is 20-1 when leading after five innings. 
•    The Beavers are 17-3 on the year and 41-5 going back to the start of the 2024 campaign when giving up two runs or fewer. 
•    Babson is 9-8 on the year in one-run games and 12-10 in contests decided by one or two runs.