BABSON PARK, Mass.—Senior John Floegel (Summit, N.J.) tossed a four-hit shutout in game one to help Babson College split Saturday's New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) baseball doubleheader with visiting MIT. The Beavers took the opener 6-0 before the Engineers followed with an 8-1 victory in game two.
Babson, which took two of three games in the series, is 20-9 overall and holds a half-game lead over MIT at 10-3 in league play. The Engineers improved to 14-8 overall and 9-3 in the NEWMAC with their game-two win.
GAME ONE: Babson 6, MIT 0
Floegel (2-2) was superb for the Beavers recording his first career shutout and striking out a career-high 11 batters to win his second consecutive decision. Juniors Brian McHale (Ramsey, N.J.) and Eric Jaun (Loveland, Ohio) both had two hits, and Jaun, senior David Lennon (Windermere, Fla.) and sophomore Jake Oliger (Newtown, Conn.) all drove in a run in the victory.
Senior David Heller (Fair Lawn, N.J.) singled twice for the Engineers. Junior Patrick Callahan (Vicksburg, Mich.) started and suffered the loss after giving up two runs on four hits while striking out three and walking four in 5.2 innings.
The Green and White broke a scoreless deadlock in the fourth without the benefit of a hit. Senior Mark Webber (Norwell, Mass.) was hit with a 2-0 pitch to start the frame, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and third on a wild pitch before coming home on a bases-loaded walk to Lennon.
The Beavers doubled their advantage in the sixth as sophomore Matthew Valente (Wyckoff, N.J.) singled and later scored on Oliger's RBI knock, and then broke the game open with a four-run seventh inning. The first five batters in the inning reach base in a frame that included RBI singles by Webber and Jaun in addition to a pair of MIT errors to led to two more runs for a 6-0 lead.
Floegel, who allowed just a pair of hits over the first eight innings, retired 12 straight batters from the fifth to the ninth and struck out the side in the seventh. He loaded the bases after hitting a batter and giving up back-to-back singles with one out in the ninth, but used a game-ending double play to escape the jam unscathed.
GAME TWO: MIT 8, Babson 1
Webber had a pair of hits and senior Ryan Arena (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) hit his eighth home run of the season in the Beavers' game-two loss. Junior Edward Lehr (Byram Township, N.J.) went 5.0 innings allowing three runs on four hits while striking out four to fall to 1-2 on the year with the loss.
Heller, senior Garrett Greenwood (Edmond, Okla.) and first-year Ethan Rolland (Burke, Va.) all had two hits, and senior Max Lancaster (Attleboro, Mass.) reached base three times and drove in three runs to lead the Engineers. Sophomore Zach Kopstein (Tiburon, Calif.) tossed six innings of one-run ball to improve to 3-1 this spring.
The Engineers loaded the bases with nobody out in the top of the first and pushed a pair of runs on RBI groundouts by first-year Thomas Allison (Kingwood, Texas) and Roland to take a 2-0 lead. Babson stranded a pair of runners in both the third and fourth innings, while MIT extended its advantage in the fifth when Greenwood led off with a walk and later stole third before scoring on another RBI groundout by Lancaster to make it 3-0.
Arena gave the Beavers life when he homered just inside the left field foul pole to lead off the sixth, but the Engineers scored three times off of sophomore reliever Michael Nocchi (Manasquan, N.J.) in the top of the seventh. Heller doubled down the left field line to drive in a run and Lancaster followed with a two-run single to extend the margin to 6-1.
First-year Adam Katz (Mt. Kisco, N.Y.) and sophomore Jared Tramontano (Corona, Calif.) limited the Green and White to just one hit over the final three innings while recording five strikeouts.
Babson returns to action on Monday when it hosts Suffolk at 11 a.m., while MIT takes on Coast Guard on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.
DOUBLEHEADER NOTES
• The Beavers are 50-37-1 all-time against MIT and have won eight of their last 11 games against the Engineers.
• Webber extended his hitting streak to 17 games with a single in game one and a pair of hits in game two.
• Despite seeing his 14-game hitting streak come to an end after going 0-for-3 in game two, Oliger did walk to reach base in a 15th straight outing.
• Floegel recorded the first complete-game shutout by a Babson starter since junior Connor Gill blanked Clark, 5-0, on April 19, 2017.