Babson Baseball Drops Series Opener at MIT, 6-1

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.— Senior Kendall Helbert (St. Louis, Mo.) hit a three-run homer and MIT broke a scoreless deadlock by scoring four times in the fourth inning en route to a 6-1 victory over visiting Babson College in the opener of a three-game New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) baseball series on Friday afternoon at O'Brien Field.

Babson, which has dropped two in a row, is now 14-10-1 overall and 5-5 in conference play, while MIT picked up its eighth straight win to move to 12-8 overall and 9-1 in the NEWMAC.

Sophomore Mark Webber (Norwell, Mass.) went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI, while first-year
Connor Gill (Sterling, Mass.) finished 1-for-3 with a double to extended his hitting streak to eight games. Sophomore Adam Ayala (Franklin Lakes, N.J.) walked and scored for the Green and White, which was limited to just four hits on the day.

Senior Alec Echevarria (Chula Vista, Calif.) and sophomore David Heller (Fair Lawn, N.J.) both finished with two hits, while senior Nate Rodman (Corvallis, Ore.) drove in a pair of runs for the Engineers, who had scored 10 or more runs in seven consecutive games entering the day.

The teams combined for just three hits before MIT broke the game open in the fourth. Rodman drove in sophomore Austin Filiere (Chandler, Ariz.) with a one out single to right for a 1-0 lead, and Helbert extended the advantage to 4-0 with his three-run blast to right two batters later.

Babson got on the board in the top of the sixth as Ayala drew a one-out walk and stole second before coming home on Webber's two-out base hit through the right side. Heller plated sophomore Max Lancaster (Attleboro, Mass.) with a two-out double to left in the bottom of the frame, and Rodman drew a bases loaded walk to make it 6-1 in the seventh.

The Green and White was unable to rally in the late innings as it left Gill, who doubled with one out, stranded at third in the eighth, and then left runners on the corners in the ninth.

Sophomore Teddy Carey (Upton, Mass.) took the loss to drop to 1-2 on the year for the Beavers after allowing six runs on six hits while matching his season high with seven strikeouts in 6.1 innings. Sophomore Will Loucks (Las Vegas, Nev.), who allowed just one run on three hits to go along with five strikeouts over 7.0 innings, is now 2-1 for the Engineers.

The teams will wrap up their three-game set with a doubleheader starting at 12 p.m. on Saturday in Babson Park.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are 41-33-1 all-time against MIT but will be looking to snap a three-game skid in the series on Saturday.
• With Gill's eighth-inning double, the Green and White now has at least one extra-base hit in 12 consecutive games.