THE BASICS:
- Records: MIT (10-16-1, 5-6 NEWMAC); Babson College (20-9, 9-2 NEWMAC)
- Score: MIT 8, Babson College 6
- Location: Cambridge, Mass. (Fran O'Brien Field)
- The Lead: Trailing by a 5-1 margin, the MIT baseball team rallied past first-place Babson College for an 8-6 victory on Friday afternoon in the first game of a three-game weekend series. The win snaps Babson's nine-game winning streak as the Engineers won their second straight game.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
- Babson got on the board in the top of the third as Francis Kiely led off the inning with a solo homer to left for the 1-0 lead. The Engineers answered in the bottom of the inning when first-year Malachi Soqui (Castaic, Calif.) scored on a two-out RBI single by junior Graham Cartwright (La Jolla, Calif.) to knot the game at 1-1.
- The big inning for the Beavers came in the top of the third as they struck for four runs on three hits. Jackson Kelly's double to left scored a pair, while Josh Yellen's sacrifice fly plated Thomas Lapham for the 5-1 advantage.
- To start the fourth, sophomore Karl Meyer (Indianapolis, Ind.) came on in relief for MIT and kept the Beavers off the board until the eighth inning. MIT chipped away at the Babson lead with a single run in the fourth and fifth as junior Erik Anderson (Palos Verdes, Calif.) picked up an RBI single in the fourth and junior Kyle Sonandres (Torrance, Calif.) homered for the third time in two games in the fifth to cut it to 5-3.
- MIT's big inning came in the bottom of the seventh as senior Cory O'Shea (Glen Allen, Va.) led off with a first-pitch solo homer to left for the 5-4 margin. Sophomore Michael Finch (Brentwood, Tenn.) doubled to left center to score both Sonandres brothers and give the Engineers their first lead at 6-5. Senior Nick Aiello (Freehold, N.J.) followed with an RBI double to left center, along with another Anderson RBI single that chased Babson reliever William Cournan from the game.
- With two runners on in the eighth, first-year Brian Rapanan (Gurnee, Ill.) came on in relief as Patrick Manning scored an unearned run before the Engineers got out of the jam. In the ninth, Rapanan notched a pair of strikeouts and secured the 8-6 victory and his first save of the season.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
- MIT outhit the Beavers by a 14-7 margin, including three hits from Anderson and two each from Kyle Sonandres, Finch and Cartwright. For Babson, Kelly and Kiely had two hits each to go along with a pair of runs batted in.
- Junior Matt Leonard (San Antonio, Texas) went three innings in the no-decision, while Meyer improved to 1-0 on the season after 4.2 innings of two-hit relief with four strikeouts. Rapanan went 1.1 innings, allowing no hits with two strikeouts for the save.
- Anthony St. John went 6.1 innings in the start as he allowed 10 hits and five runs with three strikeouts and no walks. Cournan took the loss to fall to 1-1 as he lasted just a third of an inning with three runs and four hits allowed.
UP NEXT:
- MIT is back in action on Saturday, April 23rd as the Engineers travel to Babson College for a NEWMAC doubleheader beginning at Noon.
STAY CONNECTED:
- For the latest on MIT Athletics, follow the Engineers via social media on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.