BABSON PARK, Mass.—Junior Ryan Liss (Hollywood, Fla.) hit a go-ahead pinch-hit grand slam as part of a six-run eighth inning to help Babson College rally to defeat No. 3 D3baseball.com/No. 4 ABCA Salve Regina University, 14-12, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) baseball action on Tuesday afternoon at Govoni Field.
Babson, which has won two straight games, improves to 14-12 overall and 5-3 in conference play. Salve Regina had its 10-game winning streak halted and is now 23-3 overall and 7-2 in the NEWMAC.
Senior Owen Stephens (Glastonbury, Conn.), junior Dante D'Avanzo (Ashland, Mass.) and first-year Bobby Christensen (Scotch Plains, N.J.) all homered, while seniors Zander Teator (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) and Ryan Hvozdovic (Hillsborough, N.J.) and sophomores Ben Valente (Newton, Mass.) and Colin Chou (Warren, N.J.) all finished with two hits for the Beavers. Sophomore Dillon James (Attleboro, Mass.) picked up the win to improve to 2-0 on the year with one strikeout in a shutout inning of relief.
Senior Shane Williams (Georgetown, Mass.) homered twice, sophomore Jake Harring (Portsmouth, N.H.) went 3-for-5 with a homer and five RBI, and classmate Dylan Cimini (Stonington, Conn.) also went deep as part of a four-hit day for the Seahawks, who pounded out 17 hits in the loss. Fellow sophomore Dominic Carollo (West Warwick, R.I.) dropped to 1-1 on the season with the loss after plunking three, walking one and giving up five runs in a third of an inning.
Williams gave the Seahawks a 3-0 lead just three batters into the game before Christensen led off the bottom of the second with his first career home run to lead off the bottom of the second. Cimini hit a two-run shot in the third and Williams went deep for the second time extending the Salve Regina edge to 6-2 in the fourth.
The visitors took their largest lead of the game at 9-3 on a two-run single by Harring into the top of the fifth before the Green and White started chipping away by taking advantage of an error in the bottom of the frame. D'Avanzo hit his first career homer, a two-run blast, to cut the deficit to 9-6 in the sixth and Stephens cranked another two-run homer in the seventh to get Babson within a run.
Despite recording just two hits in the eighth, the Beavers sent 12 batters to the plate and took advantage of four hit batsmen and four walks to scored six two-out runs to go in front for good. Carollo plunked two around a walk before Liss hit a towering grand slam on the first pitch he saw to give the hosts a 12-9 lead. Babson tacked on two more runs later in the inning as sophomore Dylan Drazka (Rye Brook, N.Y.) drew a four-pitch walk to bring home Chou and Valente got drilled to force in Teator extending the margin to 14-9.
The Seahawks wouldn't go quietly as the first two batters reached in the top of the ninth before Harring smashed a three-run homer to left to make it a two-run difference. Teator settled in though, getting a pop up and then recording a pair of strikeouts to close out the victory.
Babson is back in action on Wednesday when it hosts No. 22 Tufts at 3:30 p.m., while Salve Regina travels to Rhode Island College on Thursday at 3:30 p.m.
