Conway's Bombs Help Cougars Take Slugfest With Beavers

Recap, photo courtesy of Clark University

Worcester, Mass. – In a game that featured 28 hits and six homeruns, it was the excellent relief pitching of Joshua Dobratz (Southington, Conn.) that helped Clark University hold off Babson College, 13-9 in a slugfest filled with postseason implications on a very breezy Granger Diamond on Tuesday afternoon.

The Cougars have now won a season-high four straight games to improve to 16-18 overall and more importantly move within a half game of second place Coast Guard in the New England Women's And Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) West Division. In addition, the 16 wins in head coach J.P. Pyne's first season ties the school record for wins in a single season – a feat accomplished in 2005 and 2010.

For the Beavers, meanwhile, they have now dropped four of their last six and now stand at 16-12-1
and 6-7 in conference contests. Their incredibly busy stretch where they play seven games in six days continues tomorrow with a visit to the aforementioned Bears.

Today's matchup featured several players who had monster afternoons in what some thought might be a pitcher's duel featuring Clark's Cal Slepkow (Rehoboth, Mass.) and Babson's Nick Ahearn (Norfolk, Mass.) – the two pitchers who shared the league's pitcher of the week award back on March 28.

With the wind blowing out for a major portion of the game the ball was carrying to left and Slepkow needed a pair of excellent back-against-the wall catches by James Conway (Newburyport, Mass.) to escape the first two innings unscathed.

After Conway hauled in a Brian McHale (Ramsey, N.J.) shot to left to end the top of the second, he led off the bottom of the frame with a monster shot to left center, giving the Cougars a 1-0 lead. That advantage doubled when consecutive singles by Adam Chochrek (Foxboro, Mass.) and Chris Dibble (Manchester, Conn.) brought home Zach Richall (Tyngsboro, Mass.) with the game's second run.

The Clark offense was back at it in the third when Kyle Bonicki (Waterbury, Conn.) smacked his fifth triple of the season with one out and then came home on a David Eschen (New York, N.Y.) single to left. Michael Eglow (Delmar, N.Y.) followed that up with a two-out, RBI triple and then he came home when Richall singled, making the score 5-0.

After Slepkow struck out the first two batters of the fourth, he gave up a single to George Crowley (Watertown, Mass.) and then Edward Lehr (Byram Township, N.J.) launched his first career homerun to left.

Clark answered back in a big way in the bottom of the fourth sending 11 batters to the plate while scoring seven runs to take a 12-2 lead. Dibble was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and then went to third on a Tyler Hutchinson (Greene, Mass.) ground-rule double. Teddy Downing (Cambridge, Mass.) chased them both home with a single to right and he worked his way around the bases and scored on Eschen's 100th career hit – an RBI single to left.

Ahern was replaced by Nicholas Parente (Lincoln University, Pa.) and he was greeted by back-to-back homeruns from Conway and Eglow. Conway's second blast of the game was a two-run shot, good for his fifth of the season, while Eglow's was the sixth of his career.

Now in front 11-2, the Cougars added another run in the inning when Chochrek crushed another Parente offering out to the left center field alley, sailing high and deep over the outfield fence.

The Beavers immediately cut into the lead in the fifth, chasing Slepkow from the game after 4.2 innings of work. First Mark Webber (Norwell, Mass.) stroked a two-run double to left and then Eric Jaun (Loveland, Ohio) smacked his first career homerun – a two-run blast to left, making the score 12-6.

Clark added their 13th and final run in the fifth when Downing was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on a fielding error.

Babson slowly began closing the gap and pushed three more runs across in the seventh off of reliever Conor Walsh (Barnstable, Mass.) on an a Jaun RBI single, a Lehr RBI groundout and an Owen Shea (Northboro, Mass.) run-scoring double, making the score 13-9.

Clark however, wound up getting excellent relief work as well as Dobratz came on to pitch the eighth and ninth, allowing just one hit and one walk to collect his first career save.

Walsh actually earned the win for the Scarlet and White, tossing 2.1 innings in relief and yielding four hits and two earned runs.

Five different Beavers had two hits, led by Jack Halpin (Glastonbury, Conn.), Webber (two runs, two RBI), Jaun (two runs, three RBI), Crowley (two runs, two walks) and Lehr (three RBI).
Dibble led all players with three hits for Clark, while Conway was 2-for-3 with two homeruns and three RBI. Chochrek, Eglow and Eschen all had two hits as well and Downing had two RBI and two runs scored.

Clark will return to the diamond on Friday as they kick off a crucial three game series against Coast Guard. First pitch is slated for 3:30 p.m.