Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 Babson Park, Mass. – Senior captain Andrew Aizenstadt (Norwell, Mass.) and sophomore Kyle Lyon (Flemington, N.J.) each fired gems on the mound to help the Babson College baseball team take both ends of a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) doubleheader against Clark University at Govoni Field on Saturday afternoon, 4-0 and 6-1. In completing the three-game regular season series sweep of the Cougars, the Beavers improved to 20-7 overall and 12-5 in the conference.
Coming off just the third loss of his collegiate career, Aizenstadt was brilliant on the mound in game one for Babson. The senior righty fired a three-hit shutout, walking one and striking out a season-high 10 in seven innings of work. The win improved his season record to 4-1 and his career record to 17-3, moving him into sole possession of second place on the program's all-time wins list. He now trails only Sam Kilpatrick '97, who won 21 games in his outstanding career.
Babson opened the scoring in the bottom of the second, beginning when junior Billy Miller (Sagamore Beach, Mass.) and first-year Chris Warren (Medfield, Mass.) led off the frame with back-to-back doubles to put runners at second and third. Junior Joe Nixon (Foxboro, Mass.) then drove in Miller with a single to left, and Warren crossed the plate moments later on a doubleplay grounder off the bat of sophomore Pat Matvichuk (Middleton, Mass.).
The Beavers added two insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth. After junior Sean Cleary (Milton, Mass.) led off with a bunt single, freshman pinch-runner Brendan Collins (Abington, Mass.) scored all the way from first on a double to left by senior captain Dave Ahern (Bedford, Mass.). Ahern then moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by senior Corey Highfield (East Hampstead, N.H.) and scored on a two-out wild pitch.
Senior Phillip Bertocci (Thomaston, Maine) suffered his first loss of the season on the mound in game one for Clark (13-14 overall, 3-11 NEWMAC), giving up four runs on seven hits, walking four and striking out three. The defeat dropped his record to 2-1. Junior Shawn Lamothe (Bellingham, Mass.) accounted for two of the Cougars' three hits off Aizenstadt - both of them doubles - while junior Joseph Krahe (Fairfield, Conn.) added a single.
Game two saw Babson grab a 1-0 lead on a leadoff home run by sophomore Chris Kucher (Westwood, Mass.) in the bottom of the second, but Clark tied the score in the top of the fourth when senior Scott Hollingsworth (Tilton, N.H.) singled, took second on a fielder's choice, and scored on a base hit to right by Krahe. That would prove to be the only run allowed by Lyon, however, as the sophomore righty went eight innings and surrendered just six hits and one walk while striking out a career-high eight batters.
The Beavers took the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth, when sophomore Conor Kortmann (Manalapan, N.J.) led off the frame with his team's second home run of the day to make it 2-1. Babson then blew the game open with four runs in the bottom of the fifth, with junior Travis Jonasson (Needham, Mass.) driving in sophomore Trevor Boyce (Canton, Mass.) with an RBI double and Warren plating two more with a single. Sophomore John Botelho (Tempe, Ariz.) capped off the four-run outburst with an RBI single to right - his third hit of the game - as the hosts built a five-run advantage.
Lyon earned the win to improve to 3-2 on the spring, while first-year Derek Richards (Framingham, Mass.) finished off the 6-1 victory with a scoreless ninth. First-year Saul Ramirez (New York, N.Y.) started and took the loss for Clark, dropping his record to 1-2. The freshman hurler allowed two runs on three hits, walked for and fanned one in three-plus innings. Lamothe pitched 1 1/3 innings and surrendered three earned runs before junior James Wilson (Chatham, N.J.) and first-year Brian Sullivan (Auburn, Mass.) finished up with 3 2/3 innings of combined scoreless relief for the Cougars.