May 14, 2009

WPI Baseball Slugs Its Way to 15-5 NCAA Win Over Babson

Mansfield, CT --- Following a nail-biter in the Engineers' first game of the NCAA Tournament, WPI powered its way to its second tournament win, batting around in the fifth and sixth innings in a 15-5 day two win over NEWMAC rival Babson.

WPI will continue tournament play on Friday at 7:45PM, when the Engineers will take on the winner of the contest between defending national champion and third-seeded Trinity (30-5) and second-seeded Southern Maine (36-7). The contest between the Bantams and Huskies was postponed from Thursday night to Friday morning at 10am.

WPI received a strong pitching performance from starter Nolan Murphy (Shrewsbury, MA), who tied teammate Conor Fahey with a school record eight victories on the season (8-2). The junior went 7.1 innings and struck out two en route to the win. WPI extended its own school record for wins with the victory, marking the first time the program has posted a 30-win season.

"You know, this win feels great," said WPI head coach Mike Callahan. "Going to 2-0 in this tournament feels great, but I told coach (Dan) Generelli before the game that it would be really nice to get to 30 wins. We gave a few games away early in the year so we thought it would be tough. This is an outstanding bracket and Babson beat a great team yesterday in Eastern Connecticut. They are just a great team and it's just nice to be 2-0. I know I'm enjoying it and the guys are enjoying every second of this."

"A lot of people won't mention Nolan in the same breath as Conor but I definitely will," continued Callahan. "Eight wins in a season is a lot and there wasn't a doubt in my mind about him throwing today. We've had no trouble going to him because he's done it all year."

WPI struck first, scoring twice in the top of the first inning. With one out, Paul Galligan (Weymouth, MA) and Matt Moreau (Manchester, NH) picked up back-to-back base hits before Scott McNee (Falmouth, MA) laced a double off the wall in left, sending both runners home as WPI took the early advantage. Following a scoreless second inning, the Engineers tacked on a run in the top of the third. Galligan and McNee singled before Nick Bean (Middleboro, MA) delivered a two-out line drive base hit to center that scored Galligan for a 3-0 WPI lead.

Babson picked up a run to get on the board in the bottom of the third inning. Jake Bartlett (Weymouth, MA) lined a double over the head of Moreau in left for a leadoff double to start the inning. Bartlett moved to third on a Corey Highfield (East Hampstead, NH) groundout and scored on a Peter O'Toole (Salem, MA) sacrifice fly, pulling the Beavers to within 3-1 after three.|

The Beavers added another run with a two-out rally in the fourth. Designated hitter Brian Scanlon (Lawrenceville, NJ) lined a double into the right field corner to start the rally. Catcher Sean Cleary (Milton, MA) then lined a single up the middle, scoring Scanlon as the Beavers climbed back to within a run.

WPI broke the game wide open in the fifth, as the Engineers sent 11 batters to the plate in the inning. Mark Dignum (Albany, NY) led off the inning with a single before Galligan launched a home run over the wall in left, extending the WPI lead to 5-2. After Moreau followed by reaching on an error, McNee launched a mammoth home run high over the flag atop the ECSU scoreboard, boosting the Engineer lead to 7-2. The two-run shot was McNee's team-leading 12th home run of the year.

Bean reached on an infield single after McNee's blast before the first out of the inning was recorded on a fly ball to center. Bryan Watkins (Belmont, MA) followed with a one-out single, with both runners moving into scoring position on a wild pitch. Cody McGregor (Westfield, MA) picked up an RBI with a single through the left side, scoring Bean as the Engineers took an 8-2 lead. After McGregor swiped second base for his 10th stolen base of the season, Watkins and McGregor would both score on a double into the gap in right center off the bat of Wednesday's hero Joe Walsh (Weymouth, MA), giving the Engineers a 10-2 lead after four and a half.

"Today was just an all-around great effort from all the hitters," said senior co-captain McNee. "We were aggressive on the fastball, almost to the point where it was too much in the first couple of innings. I think that's important that the pitcher knows that we're all going to attack the fastball aggressively from one through nine."

The Engineers continued to add to their lead the next inning, batting around again on their way toward putting up a four-spot in the sixth. All of WPI's damage came with two out in the inning. With the bases loaded, Bean scored on a McGregor walk, Mitch McClune (Pembroke, MA) scored on a throwing error and Dignum laced a two RBI single down the left field line as WPI took a 14-2 lead.

Babson picked single runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth chasing Murphy from the game. Travis Jonasson (Needham, MA) was hit by a pitch and came around to score later in the sixth on a wild pitch. The Beavers added their fourth run in the bottom of the seventh, as a Bryan Evans (Bellaire, TX) RBI single up the middle highlighted three straight Babson runners reaching base in the inning. In the eighth, the Beavers after Cleary smacked a leadoff double and scored on a Highfield RBI groundout.

Reliever Ryan Marques (Gloucester, MA) did not allow a run in 1 2/3 innings of work.

Five different players had multi-hit games for the Engineers, led by McNee's 3-for-5 effort with four RBI. McNee rebounded from a rough game against Suffolk when he went 0-for-3, was picked off second base and committed a costly fielding error in right.

"Today it was just a matter of doing what I have to do," McNee said. "Yesterday was a really rough day for me in all aspects of the game. I didn't hit, I got picked off second and I made that terrible error that really cost us. But today I just tried to come in and be a little more loose, yesterday I guess I was a bit too amped up. Plus playing Babson helps too, we've seen them I don't know how many times this year, so it was a little more familiar and I could relax a little bit more."

Galligan had four hits, drove in three and scored three times, while Bean had three hits and crossed the plate twice. Walsh and Dignum each had two hits, and Moreau, Watkins and McGregor each scored twice for WPI.

The Beavers were paced by Besinger, Scanlon and Cleary who each recorded two hits. Besinger's two hits tied the Babson school record of 68 hits in a season. It was Besinger's 22nd multi-hit game of the year. Jeff Wojnar (Bellaire, TX) suffered the loss for Babson in four and a third innings of work.

Babson will face Husson (32-13) in Friday's NCAA Tournament action, with the first pitch scheduled for 1:15pm.