Softball vs. Wheaton
NEWMAC Tournament | Game 10
Saturday, May 10 | 1 p.m. 
Briggs Field | Cambridge, Mass. 

WHAT TO KNOW
•    After dropping Thursday's winner's bracket final to top-seeded MIT, second-seeded Babson faces an elimination game against fifth-seeded Wheaton on Saturday. 
•    The winner will advance to the championship round and must defeat the Engineers twice to the conference title and a berth in the NCAA Tournament. 

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 vs. No. 5 Wheaton, 1 p.m. 
Game 11: Winner Game 10 at No. 1 MIT, 3 p.m. 

Sunday, May 10 (at MIT)
Game 12: Winner Game 11 vs. Loser Game 11 (if necessary), 1 p.m. 
 
SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson is 28-50 all-time against Wheaton in a series that dates back to 1987. 
•    The Beavers and Lyons have split their regular season doubleheader in four consecutive seasons since 2022. 
•    Four straight games and five of the last seven games between the teams have been decided by a single run. 

POSTSEASON HISTORY
•    Babson is 6-7 all-time in the conference playoffs versus Wheaton although the teams have met just once in the NEWMAC Tournament since 2015. 
•    The Beavers defeated Lyons 8-0 in a 2023 elimination game and the programs have split eight elimination games going back to the 1995 NEW 8 Tournament. 

LAST MEETING
•    Peyton Blankenheim-Brown struck out seven and tossed a four-hit shutout as Wheaton blanked the Beavers, 1-0, in game two of a doubleheader on April 14 in Babson Park. 
•    Ella Molinari went 2-for-3 with a double and scored the only run of the game on a passed ball in the first inning for the Lyons, who dropped the opening game of the twin bill 5-4. 
•    Junior Sophia Pak went 2-for-3  and graduate student Cameron Whiteford struck out seven in a complete-game four-hitter for Babson. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    Second-seeded Babson (25-14) followed up Wednesday's 2-1 10-inning victory over third-seeded Springfield with a 2-1 loss to top-seeded MIT on Thursday. 
•    Senior Sara Moore went 2-for-4 with a run scored, sophomore Pak added an RBI single and Whiteford and graduate student Moira O'Reilly combined to allow just three hits over 6.2 innings for the Beavers, who made two of their three errors in the bottom of the seventh inning.
•    Pak is batting .465 with three doubles, two triples, a team-high 24 RBI and 20 runs scored, Moore is hitting .424 with four extra-base hits, 16 RBI and team-highs of 31 stolen bases and 33 runs scored, and first-year Belle DiCampello owns a .299 average to go along with a home run, five doubles, 20 RBI and 18 runs scored. 
•    O'Reilly is 9-5 with a 1.58 ERA and 113 strikeouts in 106.0 innings pitched this spring, while classmate Cameron Whiteford is 12-7 with a 1.83 ERA, five shutouts and 123 strikeouts in 118.2 innings on the year.

SCOUTING THE LYONS
•    Fifth-seeded Wheaton (28-14) won back-to-back elimination games on Thursday, defeating seventh-seeded Coast Guard 4-3 and upending fourth-seeded WPI for the second time in the tournament, 5-2. 
•    Blankenheim-Brown drove in the game-winning run with an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh against the Bears and then allowed two runs over 7.0 innings while knocking in the opening run against the Engineers as the Lyons took advantage of three WPI errors. 
•    Juliette Zito is batting .414 with 10 doubles, six triples, two homers, 28 RBI, 23 stolen bases and 38 runs scored, Molinari is batting .413 with 12 doubles, three triples, two home runs, 30 RBI and 25 runs scored, and Blankenheim-Brown owns a .320 average to go along with three homers, nine doubles, 26 RBI and 21 runs scored. 
•    Blankenheim-Brown is 10-4 with a 1.64 ERA, four shutouts and 57 strikeouts in 93.2 innings pitched, while Sofia De La Rosa is 13-7 with a 2.04 ERA, seven shutouts and 118 strikeouts in 123.1 innings of work on the year. 

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 7-5 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 has swiped 31 bags this spring and is now just one away from matching her single-season record of 32 set back in 2023. Her 261 total bases also rank fifth on the Beavers' career list. 
•    Moore's 222 career hits are good for third in program history behind only Catie Funk '13 (231) and Andrea Cartullo '07 (223). 
•    O'Reilly ranks second among active Division III pitchers with 889 career strikeouts in addition to ranking third in innings pitched (670.1) and strikeouts per seven innings (9.32), and sixth with 71 career victories in the circle. 

HIT PARADE
•    Pak is tied for first in the NEWMAC with a career-high 59 hits and enters Saturday's contest riding a 13-game hit streak, while Moore also is sitting on 59 hits and has at least one in 14 consecutive games. 
•    Pak and Moore are the sixth Babson duo to record 50 or more hits in the same season and first to achieve the feat since 2016 when  Annie Quine and Samantha Smith '18 finished with 55 and 51 knocks, respectively. The Green and White has never had two players get to 60 hits 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. 

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. 
•    Sophomore Charlotte 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
•    Senior Athena Hadjipanayis has reached base in nine consecutive 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 eight of her last 10 outings.
•    Pak has recorded multiple hits in 16 contests and her .465 average entering the weekend is the highest by any Babson player since 1994.
•    In 16.2 innings over Babson's first two games of the tournament, O'Reilly and Whiteford boast a 0.43 ERA, a 0.66 WHIP and are holding opposing hitters to a .123 average. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    The Beavers are 22-2 on the year when scoring at least three runs. 
•    Babson is 21-6 this spring and 42-11 over the last two seasons when scoring the first run of the game. 
•    The Green and White is 19-1 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 8-8 on the year in one-run games and 11-10 in contests decided by one or two runs.