April 19, 2018

Babson Edged by No. 23/28 Southern Maine in 10 Innings, 4-3

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GORHAM, Maine—Junior Devin Warren (Smithfield, Maine) scored the tying run in the eighth inning and raced home to score the winning run in the bottom of the 10th as No. 23 D3baseball.com/No. 28 ABCA University of Southern Maine rallied to defeat visiting Babson College, 4-3, in non-conference baseball action on Thursday afternoon at Ed Flaherty Field.

Babson, which lost for just the third time over the last 17 games, slips to 21-10 overall, while Southern Maine improves to 18-7 with its 11th win in its last 12 outings.

Junior Edward Lehr (Byram Township, N.J.) went 3-for-5 with two doubles and an RBI, while sophomore Jake Oliger(Newtown, Conn.) doubled and drove in a pair of runs for the Beavers. Senior Mark Webber (Norwell, Mass.) also extended his hitting streak to 19 games with a first-inning single.

First-year Alex Luka (Downers Grove, Ill.) got a no-decision after giving up just two runs on seven hits over 6.1 innings. Sophomore Michael Nocchi (Manasquan, N.J.) was the hard-luck loser for Babson after giving up an unearned run in the 10th.

Warren, sophomore Andrew Hiller (Bangor, Maine) and first-year Sam Troiano (South Portland, Maine) all finished with two hits for the Huskies. Classmate James Sinclair (Portland, Maine) allowed two runs on five hits over 5.1 innings in a no-decision, while junior Jake Dexter (Oakland, Maine) struck out five of the six batters he faced in 1.2 innings of work to improve to 3-2 this spring with the win.

The Green and White broke a scoreless deadlock with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth. Sophomores Sean Harrington (Walpole, Mass.) and Matthew Valente (Wyckoff, N.J.) reached with back-to-back singles and Oliger drove them both in with a two-out double to left.

Southern Maine cut its deficit in half on junior Zach Quintal's (Eliot, Maine) two-out homer to left in the bottom of the fifth. The Beavers extended its lead back to 3-1 on the strength of consecutive doubles by junior Brian McHale (Ramsey, N.J.) and Lehr in the seventh, but Troiano chased Luka with a solo blast to left with one out in the bottom of the frame to make it 3-2.

Babson stranded a pair of runners after junior Henry Curran (South Portland, Maine) drilled Harrington and Valente to lead off the top of the eighth. Warren singled to left to start the bottom of the frame, advanced to second on a wild pitch, moved to third on a fly out to deep center and then scored on sophomore Andrew Olszak's (Danvers, Mass.) grounder to shortstop to pull even at 3-3.

Dexter erased a one-out double by Lehr in the top of the ninth with back-to-back strikeouts, and then punched out the side in the 10th for the Huskies. Warren legged out an infield single and advanced to second on a throwing error with one out in the bottom of the inning, and then stole third before racing home and sliding under Harrington's tag with the game-winning run.

Babson returns to action on Friday when it hosts Emerson at 3:30 p.m. to open a three-game set, while Southern Maine hosts Plymouth State in a twin bill on Saturday starting at 12 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are now 6-11-1 all-time against Southern Maine.
• Prior to Thursday, the road team had won five straight matchups in the series.
• Thursday's loss was Babson's first game to go to extra innings since April 14, 2014.
• The Beavers entered the day with a 16-0 record when leading after seven innings.