NORTON, Mass.—Senior Mark Webber (Norwell, Mass.) homered in game one and drove in the go-ahead run in the ninth inning of game two to help Babson College sweep a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) baseball doubleheader at Wheaton College on Saturday afternoon. The Beavers won the opener 6-2 before rallying for a 4-3 victory in game two.
Babson, which has won eight consecutive games, improves to 15-7 overall and 6-2 in league play, while Wheaton falls to 10-11 overall and 5-3 in the NEWMAC.
GAME ONE: Babson 6, Wheaton 2
Junior Nicholas Browne (Mount Laurel, N.J.) went 2-for-4 with two RBI and classmate Eric Jaun (Loveland, Ohio) had three hits and scored once to pace the Beavers' 11-hit attack. Senior David Lennon (Windermere, Fla.) had a pair of hits, classmate Ryan Arena (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) doubled and reached base three times, and sophomore Jake Oliger (Newtown, Conn.) drove in a run in the victory.
Junior Connor Gill (Sterling, Mass.) improved to 3-1 after allowing just one run on six hits over 7.0 innings. Junior Max Tannenbaum (Coral Springs, Fla.) gave up an unearned run in the eighth and senior Matt Cuneo (Ashland, Mass.) pitched a scoreless ninth for the Green and Whtie.
Sophomore Trevor Marques (Lincoln, R.I.) and senior Matt Cook (Harwich, Mass.) both had two hits for the Lyons. Senior Brady Furdon (Natick, Mass.) allowed five runs, four of them earned, on nine hits in just 4.2 innings to fall to 2-2 on the season.
Webber led off the fourth inning with a home run, while Browne and Oliger followed with RBI singles to give the Beavers a 3-0 lead. Gill stranded a pair of runners in scoring position in the bottom of the frame and Babson tacked on two more runs in the fifth behind a sacrifice fly from sophomore Matthew Valente (Wyckoff, N.J.) and another RBI knock from Browne to make it 5-0.
Wheaton's best chance to get back in the game came in the seventh as it loaded the bases with nobody out. Gill worked out of trouble though, fanning Cook for the first out before getting back-to-back fly outs to left to maintain a five-run advantage.
GAME TWO: Babson 4, Wheaton 3
Arena went 3-for-5 with two doubles, two runs scored and an RBI, while Oliger and fellow sophomore Sean Harrington (Walpole, Mass.) each added three hits apiece for the Beavers. Sophomore Michael Nocchi (Manasquan, N.J.) picked up his first win of the year and Cuneo tossed a perfect ninth for his second save in relief of senior John Floegel (Summit, N.J.), who allowed two earned runs on four hits while striking out eight in 6.2 innings.
Senior Dan Southerland (Dartmouth, Mass.) got a no-decision for the Lyons after giving up two runs on eight hits over six innings. First-year John Mikosz (Southington, Conn.) was saddled with the loss and dropped to 0-2 after allowing two runs in the ninth.
Trailing 3-2 entering the ninth, Lennon worked a one-out walk and then came all the way around to score the tying run on Arena's double down the left field line. Webber then followed with a single to give the Green and White its first lead of the contest.
Wheaton jumped on top 2-0 in the bottom of the third on Chris Ruocco's (Lexington, Mass.) two-out, two-run double. The Beavers pulled even in the top of the sixth as Arena doubled and scored on Harrington's RBI single to right before Webber came home on Valente's groundout to shortstop.
The Lyons went back in front in the bottom of the frame as Nick Raposo (Johnston, R.I.) singled to left, stole second and then took advantage of an error and a passed ball to make it 3-2. Babson stranded runners on the corners in the eighth before rallying for a pair of runs in the ninth.
The Beavers will wrap up their three-game series with Wheaton on Sunday with first pitch set for 12 p.m. at Govoni Field.
DOUBLEHEADER NOTES
• Babson is 24-42 all-time against Wheaton but has now won six of the last seven games between the teams going back to last year.
• The Beavers have won 10 straight games in the month of April dating back to last season.
• Webber has now hit safely in 10 consecutive outings, while Harrington and Lennon have reached base in 17 and 11 straight games, respectively.
• During his current eight-game hitting streak, Oliger is batting .520 (13-for-25) with 11 runs batted in.