BABSON PARK, Mass.—No. 7/8 Babson College piled up 25 runs and got strong pitching performances from senior Michael Genaro (Greenwich, Conn.) and sophomore Ben Aleixo (North Smithfield, R.I.) on its way to sweeping a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) baseball doubleheader against Emerson College on Saturday afternoon at Govoni Field.
The Beavers routed the Lions 16-1 in the opener and followed it up with a 9-2 victory the nightcap.
With the wins, Babson improves to 28-5 overall and 15-2 in conference play to grab a share of its third consecutive NEWMAC regular season title. Emerson closes its season at 7-27 overall and 2-15 in the league.
Game 1: Babson 16, Emerson 1
Senior Nicholas Browne (Mount Laurel, N.J.) went 4-for-4 with two home runs and three RBI, junior Alex DiMartino(Mahwah, N.J.) homered and drove in two runs as part of a two-hit day, and classmate Sean Harrington (Walpole, Mass.) went 2-for-4 with two RBI and three runs scored to pace the Beavers' 17-hit attack. Senior Brian McHale (Ramsey, N.J.) and junior Matthew Valente (Wyckoff, N.J.) both had two hits and scored twice in support of Genaro, who improved to 6-1 with the win. He allowed just one run on five hits while striking out a career-high 13 batters in 7.0 innings.
First-year Josh Cohen (Corte Madera, Calif.) went 2-for-3 with an RBI to lead the Lions. Senior Tim Mainella (Dover, N.H.) shouldered the loss after giving up three runs on four hits and four walks in 3.0 innings. Five Emerson relievers were tagged for 13 runs, all but one of them earned, over the final five frames.
Leading 3-1 after three, the Green and White got a two-run single from Harrington as part of a three-run fourth that extended its cushion to 6-1. Browne led off the fifth with a solo blast, and both he and DiMartino jacked two-run bombs in the sixth to make it 12-1.
First-year Thomas Lapham (Charlestown, Mass.) contributed a two-run single as Babson tacked on four more runs in the seventh. Classmate Nate Carpenter (Groveland, Mass.) struck out one and was perfect over the final two frames in relief.
Game 2: Babson 9, Emerson 2
Junior Jake Oliger (Newtown, Conn.) homered and drove in five runs, while Aleixo (2-0) fanned five and allowed just one earned run and two hits over 6.0 innings to compete the sweep. Senior Eric Jaun (Loveland, Ohio) contributed three hits and McHale and senior Connor Gill (Sterling, Mass.) both had a pair of knocks and combined to score four times in the victory.
Cohen and sophomore Ryan McCahan (San Jose, Calif.) each singled for the Lions, who were limited to just two hits. Junior Jack Fox (Los Angeles, Calif.) was lifted after giving up eight runs, five of them earned, on 10 hits over 6.2 innings to fall to 5-5 on the year.
Emerson scored on a bases-loaded ground out in the first and took a 2-0 lead when senior CJ Rogers (Guilford, Conn.) raced home on a throwing error in the third before the hosts responded with six runs in the bottom of the frame. Oliger gave the Green and White the lead with a three-run blast to right center, and the Beavers took advantage of a pair of two-out errors by the Lions to push across three more runs for a 6-2 lead.
Oliger drove in Gill with an RBI ground out in the fourth and then drove in another run with a two-out RBI single to center in the sixth extending the margin to 8-2. The Beavers left them loaded in the seventh before Jaun knocked in Harrington with a single to left in the eighth.
Junior William Gallagher (Kingston, Mass.) three just eight pitches in a perfect seventh inning, sophomore Henry Leake (Burbank, Calif.) struck out the side in the eighth, and senior Max Tannenbaum (Coral Springs, Fla.) needed just four pitches to close out the ninth.
Babson returns to action on Monday when it hosts Western New England at 3:30 p.m.
GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are 19-0 all-time against Lions and have given up just nine runs over the last six meetings.
• Babson has won 34 of its last 38 games at home going back to April 22, 2017.
• Browne's seven home runs this spring are a new career high.
• With his 13-strikeout performance on Saturday, Genaro moved into third place on the program's all-time list with 166 career K's.