Babson Park, MA --- In WPI's second road outing of the season, the Engineers fell twice at nationally-ranked Babson Saturday afternoon, dropping a tight game one contest, 2-1 and ending the day with a 13-2 loss to the ninth-ranked Beavers. With the pair of losses, WPI is now 1-3 on the year while Babson swept their first outing of 2021 and are 2-0 on the season and in conference play.
Jeffrey Brennan (Amsterdam, NY) finished the day with a 4-of-7 outing, tallying a pair of hits in both games, accounting for the Engineers run in game one and driving home all of the team's runs in game two. AJ DiFillipo (Peabody, MA) shined for the Beavers in the outing with a 5-for-10 effort on the day breaking out in game two going 4-for-6 with a double, four RBIs and a pair of runs scored.
Jordy Allard (Woodstock, VT) took the victory in game one, while Riley Teevens (Milton, MA) earned game two's win for Babson.
Game 1: Babson 2, WPI 1
The Engineers got on the board first in the fourth inning when a Martin McCormack (Quincy, MA) ground out to short brought home Brennan for the game's first run. WPI was able to maintain that lead until the seventh.
But a two-run seventh inning by the Beavers, highlighted by some abnormal run offerings, was the deciding factor in game one of Saturday's doubleheader. Sean Burychka (Mount Laurel, NJ) touched home on a walk drawn by Jack Pirkl (Brightwaters, NY) and Josh Yellen (Bloomfield Hills, MI) earned what would be the game winner coming home on a Patrick Manning (Weymouth, MA) sacrifice fly to left one batter later.
Everett Wonson (Wenham, MA) got the start for the Engineers, his second of the season, pitching five scoreless innings while striking out three batters in a 59 pitch outing. In relief, Noah Pins (Holden, MA) recorded the loss working the sixth and seventh before Andrew Gray (Millersville, MD) came in to finish out the game in the eighth inning. Allard earned the win, Bentley's first of the year, while Henry Leake (Burbank, CA) picked up his first save of the year.
WPI's first two batters accounted for four of the Engineers' six hits on the day as Andrew Brooks (Millis, MA) and Brennan both finished with a 2-for-4 effort on the day. Babson was held to a combined three hits on the outing.
Game 2: Babson 13, WPI 2
Babson's offense came alive in game two as the Beavers put 13 runs on the board on 11 hits, including at least one in the first five innings of action, en route to a sweep of WPI on Saturday afternoon.
After WPI's stingy pitching held Babson to just two runs in game one, Matt Penkala (Warren, RI) lasted just 1.2 innings to begin game two giving up one run in the first, and a pair of runs in the second before being replaced by Owen Radcliff (Holliston, MA) who forced a ground out to end the inning. DiFillipo knocked in all three RBIs through the first two innings of play for the Beavers on singles to left and right field.
Babson added another two runs in the third, and then put up back-to-back four run innings in the fourth and fifth before the Engineers got on the board in the sixth inning of action.
Michael Fraser (Mashpee, MA) got on base via an error by the Beaver third baseman, and moved up to third after a rope down the leftfield line by TJ DellaCroce (Waxhaw, NC). Three batters later, Brennan doubled down the left field line driving in the on-base duo to make it a 13-2 game.
Twenty-three different Engineers saw action in the game including seven different players to take the mound combining for seven strikeouts, and 10 walks. Twenty different Beavers also took the field including five different hurlers who sat down all but four batters, by way of nine strikeouts, while not allowing a walk or a single earned run on the day.
WPI is back in action on Saturday, April 10 for a NEWMAC home doubleheader versus Clark starting at noon. Babson returns to the field on Saturday, April 3 at home against Coast Guard for a twinbill at noon.