2017 NCAA DIVISION III NEW ENGLAND BASEBALL REGIONALS
Game #9 – Elimination Game 3
Saturday, May 20, 2017
Whitehouse Field, Harwich, Mass.
FINAL: BABSON 12, ST. JOHN FISHER 8
HARWICH, Mass. – Sophomore Eric Jaun (Loveland, Mass.) went 5-for-5 and drove in a pair of runs as fifth-seeded Babson advanced in the elimination bracket of the 2017 NCAA Division III New England Baseball Regional Championships with a 12-8 victory over third-seeded St. John Fisher Saturday morning at Whitehouse Field.
The Beavers (27-14) will face the winner of the Arcadia-Salve Regina elimination round contest on Saturday evening in another elimination game at 8:00 p.m., while the Cardinals close out their season at 31-12 overall with the setback.
Babson overcame an early 1-0 deficit by scoring seven runs in its first at-bat, as a two-run single by senior Jake Weiss (Irvine, Calif.) capped the rally that also included run-scoring singles by Jaun and senior Jack Halpin (Glastonbury, Conn.). Senior Owen Shea (Northboro, Mass.) and junior Adam Ayala (Franklin Lakes, N.J.) also plated first inning runs with a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch and a groundout for the Beavers, who extended their advantage to 11-1 in the second with a four-run outburst that featured Shea’s two-run single, an RBI single from junior Mark Webber (Norwell, Mass.) and a run-scoring single off the bat of freshman Sean Harrington (Walpole, Mass.).
The teams traded runs in the third before St. John Fisher used a four-run fourth inning outburst to close to within 12-6, as seniors Evan Ryan (Olean, N.Y.) and Malcolm Kelsey (Piscataway, N.J.) plated tallies with an RBI single and a groundout that sandwiched a wild pitch and a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch to junior Scott Eisenmenger (Hilton, N.Y.). That score held up until the ninth when the Cardinals scored twice on Kelsey’s sacrifice fly and a fielder’s choice by senior Nate Roethel (Mendon, N.Y.) to account for the final margin, as a groundout ended the threat and the contest.
Shea drove in three runs in the win for Babson, which received two hits each from Weiss and Harrington as part of a 14-hit attack. Sophomore Connor Gill (Sterling, Mass.) allowed four earned runs and struck out one over the first eight innings to improve to 5-0 on the season for the Beavers, as he threw 77 of his 124 pitches for strikes. Ryan, Kelsey, Eisenmenger and freshman Allen Murphy (Richburg, N.Y.) each had two hits as part of an 11-hit attack in the setback for St. John Fisher, as sophomore Jim Dawson (Webster, N.Y.) suffered just his second defeat in eight decisions on the mound for the Cardinals.