NEWPORT, R.I.—Senior Shane Williams (Georgetown, Mass.) hit a two-run homer and Luis Ortiz Ramirez (Boston, Mass.) struck out six over seven shutout innings to help No. 4 D3baseball.com/No. 4 ABCA Salve Regina University defeat Babson College, 7-1, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) baseball action on Tuesday afternoon at Reynolds Field.
Babson had its three-game conference winning streak snapped and is now 11-9 overall and 3-2 in league play. Salve Regina has won six consecutive games to improve to 19-2 overall and 6-1 in the NEWMAC.
Sophomore
Brooks Saft (New Hope, Pa.) went 2-for-3 with a walk, classmate
Dylan Drazka (Rye Brook, N.Y.) provided an RBI double and first-year
Bobby Christensen (Scotch Plains, N.J.) singled, walked and scored a run for the Beavers, who were held to four hits. Graduate student
Joe Carrea (Cranford, N.J.) started and gave up four earned runs over 4.0 innings with two strikeouts to drop to 1-1 on the year.
Graduate student
Michael Camardi (Syosset, N.Y.) struck out four while giving up a run over two innings of relief, while sophomore
Dillon James (Attleboro, Mass.) and junior
Jason Finkelstein (Walpole, Mass.) both worked a scoreless inning out of the bullpen for Babson.
Senior Evan O'Rourke (Arlington, Mass.) and sophomore Grady Schopps (Fairfield, Conn.) both doubled and recorded a pair of hits, classmate Jake Harring (Portsmouth, N.H.) went 2-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored, and senior Elliot Hamilton (Glastonbury, Conn.) singled twice to lead the Seahawks' 12-hit attack. Sophomore Danny Rogers (New Canaan, Conn.) knocked in two runs and Ortiz allowed just one hit and his first walk of the season to improve to 5-0 with the victory.
Harring led off the bottom of the first with a single and Salve Regina loaded the bases thanks to back-to-back errors before Rogers came through with a two-run single to right to put the hosts in front. Williams hit a two-run blast in the third to make it 4-0, senior Shea Donovan (Milton, Mass.) extended the lead to 5-0 with a two-out RBI single to left in the fourth and RBI doubles by sophomore Dylan Cimini (Stonington, Conn.) and Schopps extended the Seahawks' cushion to 7-0 in the fifth.
Ortiz retired six straight batters to start the game and 12 in a row through the middle innings before plunking Beavers' sophomore
Ben Valente (Newton, Mass.) with one out in the seventh. The Green and White finally got on the board in the eighth as Christensen drew a leadoff walk and later scored on Drazka's two-out double to right center.
Both teams are back in action on Thursday as Babson hosts Rhode Island College at 3:30 p.m., while Salve Regina takes on Mitchell at 3 p.m.
GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are now 13-9 all-time against Salve Regina but have dropped three straight games between the teams.
• Tuesday's loss snapped Babson's five-game road winning streak.
• Saft recorded his second multi-hit game of the season and now has at least one knock in four consecutive starts, while Valente saw his 10-game hitting streak come to an end.
• Babson is now 1-4 this season and 5-7 dating back to the start of last year against nationally-ranked opponents.
