SAN ANTONIO, Texas— Babson College rallied for four runs in the ninth inning and had the bases loaded with one out but the rally fell short and the Beavers suffered an 8-5 loss to No. 1/6 Trinity College in the season opener Friday evening at the Trinity Baseball Field.

With the loss, the Beavers start the season at 0-1 while Trinity, ranked No. 1 by D3baseball.com and No. 6 by the ABCA, won its fourth game in a row to improve to 4-1.

Graduate student Ryan Grace (Concord, Mass.) went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and two RBI to lead the Beavers. Junior Ryan Liss (Hollywood, Fla.) had a home run among his two hits, two runs and two RBI, and sophomore Gabe Harmon (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) had a single, a run scored and an RBI in the loss.

Sophomore Will Dixon (Houston, Texas) had two hits, including a triple, and two RBI to lead the Tigers. Senior Nichols Jones (Southlake, Texas) had a single and a double, sophomore Will Baker (Missouri City, Texas) had an RBI double and two runs scored, and grad student Michael Lustina (Austin, Texas) scored two runs after reaching base four times with a single, a walk and two hit by pitches.

Trinity took a 5-0 lead with three runs in the first inning and two more in the second. Baker ripped an RBI double down the left field line to open the scoring, Dixon added a run-scoring triple to left center and Lustina blooped a single to center in the first inning. Senior Khalfani Coney (Los Angeles, Calif.) led off the second inning with a double to right and later scored on a double steal, and junior Callen Singhania (Dallas, Texas) scored on an infield error for the 5-0 lead.

Babson got on the board in the top of the third inning when Liss clouted a one-out home run to right field, but the Tigers answered with another double steal in the bottom half of the inning, with Lustina scoring on the play.

Trinity picked up single runs in the fifth and sixth innings. Junior Mattias Rytting (Houston, Texas) hit a bases-loaded single though the left side in the fifth and Dixon produced an RBI single to right in the sixth.

The Beavers started their ninth-inning rally when junior Alexander Wilson (Millburn, N.J.) and senior Owen Stephens (Glastonbury, Conn.) were hit by a pitch, and Harmon brought home Wilson with a single up the middle and Liss plated Stephens with a single to left. After junior Connor Frickey (Colorado Springs, Colo.) reached on an infield single to load the bases, Grace followed with another infielder hit that scored Liss and Frickey. Cameron Grindle drew a walk to reload the bases with one out, but Trinity sophomore Will Taylor (Greenwood Village, Colo.) came on and struck out the next two batter to close out the win.

Will Hellings (xxx) worked seven innings, allowing one run on four hits while striking out 11, to earn the win (1-0), and Taylor registered his first save. Senior James Clark (Southborough, Mass.) started and worked two innings for the Beavers and took the loss (0-1).

The two teams will play game two of a three-game series on Saturday at 3 p.m. EST/2 p.m. CST.

GAME NOTES
•    Babson is 7-11 all-time against Trinity in a series that dates back to 2017, but the Beavers have dropped six of their last seven games versus the Tigers going back to 2023
• The Beavers are 1-5 against Trinity in season openers since 2019.
• Liss extended his on-base streak to 31 game going back to last March.