Box Score Babson Park, Mass. - First-year hurler Kyle
Lyon combined with two other pitchers on a three-hit shutout and
senior captain Brian Scanlon drove in three runs as the Babson
College Beavers blanked visiting Clark University, 11-0, in a New
England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) baseball
game at Govoni Field on Tuesday afternoon.
With the win, Babson (18-8 overall, 8-4 NEWMAC), ranked seventh in
New England, concluded its regular season conference play and can
finish no lower than third in the final NEWMAC standings. As a
result, the Beavers will host at least a first round game of the
six-team, double-elimination tournament next Wednesday, April 21,
at 3:30 p.m.
Babson could possibly host a rematch with Clark (12-12 overall, 4-6
NEWMAC) in the contest, as the Cougars currently sit in fourth
place in the league standings with two games left to play.
Lyon was once again brilliant on the mound for Babson, improving
his record to 4-0 with 7 2/3 shutout innings. The rookie
righthander allowed just three hits and two walks while striking
out five as he lowered his ERA to 2.77 this spring.
Junior Jeff Browne came on and got the final out of the eighth
inning for the Beavers, and sophomore Pat Doherty pitched a 1-2-3
ninth to finish off the combined shutout.
Scanlon paced the Beavers' offense, going 3-for-5 with a double and
three RBI. Fellow senior Jake Bartlett extended his hitting streak
to nine games by going 2-for-4 with two runs driven in, and senior
captain Dave Ahern pushed his hit streak to a team-best nine
contests by going 2-for-2 with a double, three runs scored, and one
knocked in.
Junior Peter Lewis (Gardiner, Maine), junior
Andrew Agostini (Williamstown, Mass.), and
sophomore Nicholas Kellogg (Florence, Mass.)
accounted for Clark's three hits, while freshman Andrew LeBlanc (Farmington, Conn.) started and took the loss on
the mound, dropping his season record to 2-4.
Babson jumped all over the Cougars in the bottom of the first
inning, plating five runs on just two hits. A walk to senior Peter
OToole and a hit-by-pitch by sophomore Travis Jonasson put two
men on for Ahern, who drove in one with a double to the gap in
right center. A dropped fly ball on a sac fly to deep left by
first-year Chris Kucher plated another run, and two batters later
an infield error on a grounder by junior Billy Besinger brought
home another run as the Beavers increased their lead to 3-0.
Bartlett then capped off the five-run frame with a two-out, two-run
single to center, giving the hosts a 5-0 advantage.
Babson continued to add to its lead with single runs in each of the
next three innings, with Jonasson and first-year John Botelho
recorded RBI groundouts in the second and third, respectively, and
Scanlon added a run-scoring single in the fourth. Two more errors
and an RBI double by Scanlon added two more unearned runs in the
sixth, and Ahern singled and scored on another RBI hit by Scanlon
in the eighth as the Beavers surged to the 11-0 victory.