Baseball at the RussMatt Invitational
Friday, March 13 – Thursday, March 19

WHAT TO KNOW
•    After opening its season in San Antonio, Texas, two weeks ago, the Babson baseball team heads to central Florida for seven games in seven days beginning on Friday. 
•    The Beavers will play four games at the Northeast Regional Park in Davenport and three games at Lake Myrtle Park in Auburndale while facing opponents from six different conferences. 

SCHEDULE
Friday, March 13 vs. Bowdoin, 3:30 p.m. | Davenport, Fla.
Saturday, March 14 vs. Saint Joseph (Conn.), 9:30 a.m. | Davenport, Fla.
Sunday, March 15 vs. Amherst, 6 p.m. | Auburndale, Fla.
Monday, March 16 vs. Scranton, 1:30 p.m. | Auburndale, Fla. 

SERIES HISTORY
vs. Bowdoin: The Beavers are 5-7 all-time against Bowdoin in a series that dates back to 2018 and have not met since suffering an 11-4 loss in Florida back in 2018. 

vs. Saint Joseph (Conn.): first meeting

vs. Amherst: Babson is 5-1 all-time against the Mammoths in a series that dates back to 2011 but suffered an 11-8 loss to conclude last year's trip to Florida. 

vs. Scranton: The Beavers are 1-1 all-time against the Royals and will play for the third consecutive season in Florida. Babson suffered a 20-17 loss in 2024 before holding on to defeat Scranton, 9-8, last March. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    Babson (1-2) wrapped up its three-game series at No. 1/6 Trinity by defeating the Tigers, 6-5, in San Antonio, Texas, on March 1. 
•    Graduate student Ryan Grace knocked in a pair of runs in the series finale and hit .385 with two doubles and four RBI in three starts, first-year Robert Christensen recorded a pair of multi-hit games and sophomore Dylan Drazka went 3-for-6 at the plate with three RBI for the Beavers, who hit .276 as a team and drew 15 walks over the final two games of the series. 
•    The Green and White returns two of its top three hitters from last season in senior Zander Teator, who earned all-region and all-conference accolades after batting .386 with 11 doubles, four home runs, a team-high 34 RBI and two runs scored, and junior Ryan Liss, who hit .325 with 10 doubles, five homers, 29 RBI and a team-high 34 runs scored in 35 starts. 
•    Sophomore Chase Burrows (4-1, 3.26 ERA, 47.0 IP), junior Jason Finkelstein (3-2, 3.30 ERA, 46.1 IP) and senior James Clark (2-2, 5.56 ERA, 43.2 IP) led the team in innings pitched and combined to start 20 games a season ago, while Teator made 15 appearances out of the bullpen recording six saves and 14 strikeouts in 16.2 innings while finishing the year with a 2.16 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP. 

SCOUTING BOWDOIN
•    The Polar Bears (2-3), return seven starters and five pitchers that tossed at least 22 innings from a team that went 24-11 in 2025. 
•    Tommy O'Donnell is batting .545 (6-for-11) with two doubles, Will Bordes is 3-for-12 with two homers, a double and three RBI, and both Liam Foley (.363, 2 HR, 9 2B, 29 RBI) and Lukas Tsai (.358, 3 2B, 1 HR, 25 RBI, 13 SB, 22 R) are back after earning All-NESCAC honors a season ago. 
•    Jackson Melendy was 3-2 with a 4.03 ERA and 28 strikeouts in 29.0 innings last spring, Bordes (2 APP, 4.0 IP, 7 SO) went 3-0 in 13 relief appearances in 2025 and Sam Sacerdote (1-0, 3.33 ERA, 24.1 IP) has given up just one hit over 4.1 innings to begin the year. 

SCOUTING SAINT JOSEPH
•    The Blue Jays (5-1), who were picked second in the GNAC preseason poll after going 25-18 last year, bounced back from their first loss of the 2026 campaign with a 6-4 win over Bowdoin on Tuesday in Florida. 
•    Dom Scalia is batting .381 with two homers, 11 RBI and seven runs scored, Ryan Quinn is hitting .375 with three doubles, seven walks, three stolen bases and five runs scored, and Sam Balducci leads the team with eight runs batted in over his first six games. 
•    Brandon Cahill is 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA and 13 strikeouts in 12.0 innings this spring, Ethan Slowik is 1-0 with a 2.57 ERA after going 3-3 with a 3.83 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 51.2 innings last year, and Marcus Tarfano (17 APP, 3-1, 3.69 ERA) is 3-0 with a 2.84 earned run average over 6.1 innings in three relief appearances to start the season. 

SCOUTING AMHERST
•    The Mammoths (2-1) bring back four starters and seven of its nine leaders in innings pitched from a team that concluded the 2025 campaign at 18-16. 
•    Charlie LaFreniere is 6-for-10 with three RBI and three runs scored after driving in 32 runs last spring, Leo Foust is 4-for-8 at the plate with an RBI and four runs scored, and Tyler McCord is hitting .400 (4-for-10) with two doubles and two RBI after batting .354 with two homers, 10 doubles and 32 RBI in 2025. 
•    Yoon Chae went 3-1 with a 3.31 ERA in 32.2 innings of work last season, Nick Fassert (9 IP, 0-0, 3.00 ERA) finished 3-3 with a 4.23 earned run average while throwing a team-high 55.1 innings a year ago, and Matt Tabet went 3-3 with a 5.74 ERA in 26.2 innings in 2025. 

SCOUTING SCRANTON
•    The Royals (5-3) head to Florida having won four of their last five games after beating William Paterson 9-7 to split a doubleheader last Saturday. 
•    Matthew Gannon is batting .455 with three doubles, two RBI and 13 runs scored, Joey Granko is hitting .348 with a home run, eight RBI and seven runs scored, and Conor Campbell has a .314 average to go along with a double, a team-high nine RBI and six runs scored in eight starts on the year. 
•    Ryan Boyd is 1-0 with a 4.00 earned run average over 9.0 innings in five relief appearances this spring, Jackson Bullaro is 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA and is holding opposing hitters to a .154 average in two appearances out of the bullpen, and Logan Mason has recorded a pair of saves while striking out six in 5.0 innings pitched. 

TEATOR EARNS PRESEASON RECOGNITION
•    Coming off one of the best two-way seasons in program history in 2025, Teator was named to the D3baseball.com Preseason All-America Second Team back in January. 
•    An ABCA and D3baseball.com all-region second-team honoree and All-NEWMAC first-team choice last spring, Teator led the Green and White with 11 multi-RBI games and was first on the team in OPS (1.142), slugging percentage (.670) and on-base percentage (.472). 
•    He also struck out 14 and walked just five batters while holding opposing hitters to a .200 average in 16.2 innings pitched over 15 relief appearances. 

POLL POSITION
•    Despite losing the opening round of last year's conference tournament, Babson was picked to finish third in the NEWMAC preseason coaches' poll earlier this month. 
•    The Beavers totaled 51 points coming in just five points behind second-place Coast Guard, while No. 9/10 Salve Regina, the reigning NEWMAC Tournament and regular season champions, claimed seven of nine first-place votes to finish atop the poll with 63 points. 

TALKIN' ABOUT TEXAS
•    Graduate student Cooper Smith struck out four and allowed three earned runs over 5.0 innings in his Babson debut in game two of the Beavers' series at Trinity, while Burrows worked into the sixth inning and picked up the team's first win of the year allowing three runs to go along with three strikeouts in his first start of the year. 
•    Graduate transfer Joe Carrea worked out of bases-loaded jam in the sixth inning and fanned five over 2.1 scoreless frames in Babson's game three victory against the Tigers. 
•    Junior Tristan Pearl also had a solid season debut out of the bullpen giving up one earned run and striking out three while holding opposing batters to a .182 average in 3.1 innings in game one of the series on February 27. 
•    Junior Jack Moses and sophomore Ben Valente both recorded hits in back-to-back games, while senior Owen Stephens started all three contests going 3-for-9 (.333) at the dish while getting plunked twice, walking once and scoring a pair of runs. 

STREAKING BEAVERS
•    Grace had at least one hit in all three games at Trinity to open the season, while Stephens singled in each of the final two games and reached base safely in all three contests. 
•    Liss has reached base safely in 33 straight outings dating back to March 15 of last year. 
•    Teator reached base safely in all three games at Trinity, while sophomore Gabe Cushner has been on base in his last six starts going back to last year. 
•    Teator also has recorded at least one strikeout in six consecutive relief appearances, while Finkelstein has fanned at least one batter in each of his 17 games on the mound. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    The Beavers are 21-3 going back to the start of last season when scoring at least six runs. 
•    Since the start of the 2024 campaign, Babson is 46-1 when leading after seven innings. 
•    The Green and White is 6-6 in games decided by one or two runs dating back to the beginning of the 2025 season. 
•    The Beavers went 14-3 last spring when finishing with more hits than their opponents. 

UP NEXT
•    Babson will continue play in Florida against No. 3/4 Johns Hopkins next Tuesday, Rutgers-Newark on Wednesday and Franklin & Marshall on Thursday.