WORCESTER, Mass.—Junior
Jason Finkelstein (Walpole, Mass.) pitched seven strong innings in game one and eight different players drove in a run in game two to help visiting Babson College sweep WPI in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) baseball doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at Granger Field.
The Beavers edged the Engineers 4-3 in the opener and built a seven-run lead before holding off a late rally by the hosts to win game two 12-11. Babson, which has won six of its last seven games, improves to 22-15 overall and 10-6 in conference play while securing the third seed in next week's NEWMAC Tournament. WPI sees its season come to a close at 15-22 overall and 3-13 in league play.
Game 1: Babson 4, WPI 3
Finkelstein (4-2) struck out seven and allowed just one earned run over 7.0 innings to win his third straight start, while sophomore
Colin Chou (Warren, N.J.) hit his first career home run to lead the Beavers. Junior
Dante D'Avanzo (Ashland, Mass.) was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI, senior
Zander Teator (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) had an RBI double and two stolen bases, and sophomore
Dylan Drazka (Rye Brook, N.Y.) walked twice and swiped three bags in the win.
Junior Matt Shea (Salem, N.H.) was 2-for-2, senior Shane McLaughlin (Brewster, N.Y.) homered and classmate Jacob Wiberg (Exeter, N.H.) shouldered the loss despite striking out six and giving up just two earned runs in 6.2 innings of work.
Chou hit a two-run blast with two-outs in the top of the second and McLauglin answered with a solo homer in the bottom of the frame for the only scoring over the first six innings. The Green and White left six runners on base over the middle innings before putting together a two-out rally in the top of the seventh that included an RBI single to right by D'Avanzo and a double to left by Teator that brought home sophomore
Gabe Cushner (Harrington Park, N.J.) to make it 4-1.
WPI answered right back in the bottom of the seventh, loading the bases with a pair of singles and a hit batsman before scoring a pair of runs on a wild pitch to get within 4-3. The Babson bullpen shut things down over the final two frames though, as sophomore
Dillon James (Attleboro, Mass.) got an inning-ending double play to erase a leadoff walk in the eighth before Teator struck out the side with the tying run on first in the ninth for his fifth save of the year.
Game 2: Babson 12, WPI 11
Sophomore
Ben Valente (Newton, Mass.) went 3-for-6 with a triple, two RBI and three runs scored, junior
Connor Frickey (Colorado Springs, Colo) went 2-for-5 with two RBI and Cushner and Chou both added two runs batted in for the Beavers, who recorded 11 hits and took advantage of 12 walks in the victory. Drazka and Teator both walked three times and scored twice, and graduate student
Joe Carrea (Cranford, N.J.) struck out a career-high 10 over 6.0 innings to improve to 3-2 with the win.
Senior Zachary Roethlein (Pomfret Center, Conn.) went 3-for-6 with a homer, a triple and six RBI to lead the Engineers.
Babson jumped all over WPI sophomore Alex Hee (Walpole, Mass.) with a four-run first inning that included two-out RBI singles by both junior
Ryan Liss (Hollywood, Fla.) and Frickey. Valente greeted senior Ethan Smith (Hanson, Mass.) with a triple to right center that brought home a pair of runs before scoring on Teator's RBI groundout to make it 7-0 in the second.
Carrea cruised through the first four innings before WPI cut its deficit to 7-4 in the fifth thanks to a two-run triple by Roethlein and an RBI ground out by senior Jonathan Lattimer (Windsor, Conn.). The Beavers answered back with a four-run sixth that included a two-run double by Choi to match their largest lead of the game at 11-4.
Roethlein hit a three-run homer in the seventh and senior Jack Zawacki (Pittsford, N.Y.) provided a two-run double during a three-run eighth that pulled the Engineers within 12-10. Graduate student
Michael Camardi (Syosset, N.Y.) recorded the final out of the eighth and got two quick outs in the ninth before the hosts cut their deficit to 12-11 and got the potential tying run to third with an infield single by sophomore Chuck Cappello (Southborough, Mass.) before Zawacki bounced out to second to end the game.
Babson is back in action on Wednesday when it hosts Clark in the opening round of the NEWMAC Tournament at 3:30 p.m.
GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are now 61-25 all-time against WPI and have won 16 of the last 18 games between the teams since 2018.
• The Beavers are 5-4 in one-run games this season.
• Teator matched the single-season record after getting hit by a pitch for the 16th time this season in game two of Saturday's twin bill.
• Valente (12) and D'Avanzo (11) both extended their hitting streaks with knocks in both games on Saturday, while Teator has now reached base safely in 15 straight games.
