SPRINGFIELD, Mass.—Graduate student Michael Lepere (Beacon, N.Y.) drove in the go-ahead run with a two-out single in the bottom of the seventh as Springfield College erased a five-run deficit to defeat visiting Babson College, 6-5, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) baseball action on Tuesday afternoon at Archie Allen Field. 

Babson, which has dropped back-to-back games, slips to 16-13 overall and 6-5 in conference play. Springfield has won its last two contests to improve to 20-11 overall and 6-5 in the NEWMAC. 

Junior Dante D'Avanzo (Ashland, Mass.) had a two-run triple, classmate Jack Moses (Belle Mead, N.J.) provided an RBI double and sophomore Colin Chou (Warren, N.J.) also doubled as seven different players registered a hit for the Beavers. Senior Zander Teator (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) walked twice, was hit by a pitch and scored a pair of runs, while sophomore Graydon Vyse (Glastonbury, Conn.) struck out four and gave up three runs on eight hits over 5.1 innings in a no-decision. 

Juniors Tyler Casey (Wallingford, Conn.) and Chris Balchius (Norwalk, Conn.) both went 4-for-5 with two runs batted in, while Lepere and senior Nicholas Lloyd (Easthampton, Mas.) each recorded a pair of hits for the Pride. Senior Ryan Baker (North Reading, Mass.) struck out two over three shutout innings of relief to improve to 2-1 on the year and first-year Jake Gombotz (South Windsor, Conn.) fanned two and recorded the final six outs for his first save of the season. 

The Green and White wasted no time putting up runs as sophomore Ben Valente (Newton, Mass.) led off the game with a single and later scored on an RBI double to left by Moses, which was followed by D'Avanzo's two-out, two-run triple to center for a 3-0 advantage. Vyse worked out of trouble after giving up back-to-back singles to start the bottom of the first and Babson added to its lead thanks to an RBI ground out by Valente in the fourth and a two-out triple to right by junior Ryan Liss (Hollywood, Fla.) to make it 5-0 in the fifth. 

Springfield stranded five runners on base over the first four frames before getting on the board in the fifth as Casey stroked a one-out triple to left center and came around on Balchius' RBI single one batter later. Lepere's RBI single chased Vyse with one out in the sixth and Casey came through with a two-run single off Beavers' graduate student Joe Carrea (Cranford, N.J.) cutting the deficit to 5-4 before stealing second and coming around to score on another RBI single by Balchius to tie the game. 

The Pride led off the seventh with consecutive singles and moved both runners into scoring before Lepere singled through the right side to drive in junior Nate Garafalo (Kinderhook, N.Y.) for a 6-5 lead. Gombotz stranded the potential tying run at the third with a punch out to end the eighth and worked around a hit batsman and an infield single with two outs in the ninth with a game-ending ground out to first. 

Both teams return to action on Wednesday as Babson hosts Lasell at 3:30 p.m., while Springfield travels to Rensselaer at 4 p.m. 

GAME NOTES
•    The Beavers are 42-25 all-time against Springfield but have lost four of their last five games at Archie Allen Field since 2023. 
•    Valente has now reached base in 20 consecutive games and has scored at least one run in nine straight outings. 
•    The Green and White is now 3-3 this season in one-run games and all three of the losses have come in NEWMAC play. 
•    The Beavers are now 7-12 this spring when allowing six or more runs.