Box Score GORHAM, Maine -- The Babson College Beavers scored five runs in the eighth inning to overcome a two-run deficit and defeated the #5/#6-ranked University of Southern Maine Huskies, 6-4, in a non-conference baseball game Wednesday afternoon at the USM Baseball Stadium.
The win was the sixth straight for the visiting Beavers and improved their record to 18-13 overall. The Huskies, winners in 10 of their previous 11 games, dropped to 24-8 overall.
Three Babson hurlers held the USM bats to six hits in the game. Sophomore Hunter Silva (Bourne, Mass.) started and gave up two runs on one hit and two walks while striking out one. He also hit two batters. Rookie John Russolillo (Georgetown, Mass./Governors Academy), who picked up the win, worked two innings giving up a run on two hits. Senior Kyle Lyon (Flemington, N.J./Delaware Valley Regional) picked up his first save pitching the final two innings.
Rookie Jack Halpin (Glastonbury, Conn.) had a double and two singles to lead the Beavers' 11-hit attack. Junior Sean MacPhee (Framingham Mass/Belmont Hill) had a double, single and two RBI. Junior Chris Warren (Medfield, Mass.) had a pair of singles.
For the Huskies, sophomore Sam Dexter (Oakland, Maine/Messalonskee) and senior Matt Verrier (Norway, Maine/Oxford Hills) each had a double. Junior right-hander Andrew Richards (South Portland, Maine), the fifth of seven USM hurlers used in the contest, took the loss to fall to 2-1 on the season.
Down 3-1 with two innings to play, Babson sent 10 men to the plate in the eighth. Warren led off the frame with a single. After a fly out, the next four hitters grounded singles through the USM defense. Rookie Owen Shea (Northborough, Mass/St. John's HS) brought home the first run, and MacPhee followed with a two-run single. A hit batsman loaded the bases before junior Rob Caggiano (Medford, Mass./Belmont Hill) laid down a squeeze bunt to bring in Shea. MacPhee scored the fifth run on a wild pitch.
Despite being held to one hit by Silva over the first five innings, it was the Huskies who had the early lead. In the first inning, rookie Paul McDonough (Wells, Maine) walked, stole second and scored on Dexter's one-out double. Dexter would advance to third on a wild pitch and later scored on an errant pick-off attempt.
Babson struck for an unearned run in the sixth against USM junior starter Alex Tobey (South Berwick, Maine/Berwick Academy). Warren, who was hit by a pitch leading off the inning, scored from third on a two-out infield error. Tobey pitched well for USM allowing only the one unearned run on four hits and one walk in 5.2 innings. He struck out three.
USM restored its two-run advantage in the seventh when Verrier doubled, moved up on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a sacrifice fly by rookie Matt Bender (Walpole, Mass.).
The Huskies loaded the bases with one out in the ninth against Lyon, but were only to get one run on a fielder's choice from sophomore Nick DiBiase (Portland, Maine/Deering).
Southern Maine travels to Keene State College on Saturday (12:00 p.m.) for a Little East Conference doubleheader. Babson opens the NEWMAC tournament tomorrow (3:30 p.m.) with a quarterfinal round home game against WPI.
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