SALEM, Mass.—Juniors Connor Gill (Sterling, Mass.) and Nicholas Browne (Mount Laurel, N.J.) both homered as visiting Babson College stretched its winning streak to seven games with a 6-3 victory at Salem State University in non-conference baseball action on Tuesday afternoon.
Babson, which is third in the NCAA regional rankings, improves to 28-10 overall, while Salem State drops to 19-17 with its fourth loss in the last five contests.
Sophomore Matthew Valente (Wyckoff, N.J.) had two hits and senior Ryan Arena (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.), junior Eric Jaun (Loveland, Ohio) and sophomore Aidan Scott (South Glastonbury, Conn.) all doubled for the Beavers. Sophomore Alex Luka (Downers Grove, Ill.), who improved to 2-0 with the win, and senior Teddy Carey (Upton, Mass.) both tossed two scoreless innings, while junior Max Tannenbaum (Coral Springs, Fla.) closed the door in the ninth for his first save.
Senior Alex Toomey (Beverly, Mass.) and first-year Shawn Rebello (Bellingham, Mass.) both had three hits and each drove in a run for the Vikings. Classmate Brian Smith (Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.) started and shouldered the loss after giving up four runs on four hits in 2.2 innings.
Gill hit a one-out homer in the top of the first and Browne extended the lead with a three-run bomb to right with two outs in the third to make it 4-0. Carey retired the final five batters he faced, but Salem State took advantage of a pair of Babson errors and cut its deficit to 4-2 on RBI singles by Rebello and Toomey in the last of the fifth.
The Vikings scratched out another run on an RBI ground out by sophomore Kyle O'Connor (Lynn, Mass.) in the seventh, but the Beavers responded with a pair of insurance runs in the top of the ninth. McHale led off the with a single, Gill was hit by a pitch and Arena stroked a two-run double to left for a 6-3 advantage.
Both teams will wrap up the regular season on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. as Babson hosts Roger Williams, while Salem State travels to Endicott.
GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are now 4-7 all-time against Salem State and have won two straight against the Vikings.
• Arena's 42 RBI this season are the most by a Babson player since 2009 when Bryan Evans '09 drove in 43 runs.
• With three bases on balls on Tuesday, the Beavers set a new single-season record with 185 walks.
• The Beavers have now won nine of their last 11 games in the month of May going back to last year.