BB: NEWMAC: New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference

[JustAFan]

A shocker in Wellesley--Clark beats Babson 12-11 this afternoon in an opening round game of the NEWMAC tournament. Babson led 11-2 after 6 innings, and pulled its starter, only to have its bullpen implode. Clark scored 10 runs in the 8th, 9 of them earned, to pull out the win. Wow!

[JustAFan]

More NEWMAC opening round scores:

MIT over Springfield, 11-2
Wheaton over WPI, 10-3

Wheaton pounded out 22 hits, 16 against WPI's #1 pitcher, Conor Fahey, who fell to 8-2 on the season.  Chris McDonough got the win for Wheaton.  Six Wheaton starters had 3 or more hits.

MIT's Turner pitched a complete game 7 hitter for MIT.

[363dp]

Second round games set for Thursday are:

WPI @ Babson
Clark @ Springfield
MIT @ Wheaton

[dubbc]

I think my point was made about Babson being a little to high low come tourney time.  Only Babson can give up 10 runs in one innings to blow a sure win game.  Very interested to see how they bounce back, they certainly have the talent to do so.... but it seems like it's wheaton's tournament to win again...

on another note, is it possible for any coach to run a pitcher further into the ground than wpi's coach has to to fahey?? this is a kid who was lights out last year and all summer in the necbl, but consistently having him throw over 100 pitches and on 3 days rest just does not give him a shot at success.  My hats off to the kid on how well he has performed all things considered.

Looking forward to the weekend. Seems like another Wheaton sweep to me.

[C2islegit]

Dubbc,

I was actually at the Babson game and I can tell you that Babson came out dominating the game hitting 4 home runs including back to back jacks that made it 11-2. Their ace dominated 6 strong, and then the normally very good bullpen struggled in the 8th. All of Clark's hits were singles, with the majority of them coming on ground balls through holes. Four HBP's in the inning didn't help either, but half were on skimmed jersey balls. But, that's baseball and Babson will have to battle now in the remainder of the tourney. I'm also interested to see how they bounce back vs WPI today, because again Babson is the stronger team, but Clark proved that anyone can get lucky.

It will also be interesting to see if these pesky lower level NEWMAC teams can upset Wheaton for once, seems like in years past they just roll over vs them. I wonder if Clark will ride their momentum for a few games or prove yesterday was only a fluke. Also, I agree about Fahey, its a shame he has been overused because he has a lot of talent for sure. Looking forward to the weekend games.

[JustAFan]

Turnaround was fair play for Babson today as it eliminated WPI 10-8.  A day after giving up 10 runs to Clark in the 8th inning, Babson used an eighth inning rally of its own to stave off elimination this afternoon.  WPI led 8-3 going into the bottom of the eighth when Babson erupted for 7 runs on 7 hits to take the lead for good. The key blow was a 3 run homer by shortstop Dave Ahern, who had 2 hits and 4 RBI's on the day. Jeff Wojnar went 6 innings for Babson and John Hudspeth pitched the last 3 and got the win to improve his record to 5-0.

[JustAFan]

More scores:

Springfield beats Clark, 13-1

Wheaton beats MIT, 13-2

[JustAFan]

Saturday's pairings:

9:30  Clark vs. MIT (elimination game)

12:45  Babson vs. Springfield (elimination game)

4:00  Wheaton vs. Winner of Clark/MIT game

[Ralph Turner]

Two Dallas-Ft Worth players going to MIT.

[363dp]

Nice preseason write up on Wheaton. Sounds like they will have their usual strong deep pitching staff, but will have alot of offfense to replace. Looks like they will return to the NEWMAC regular season title as well as the playoff champion and auto bid.

[SonsofMattNoone]

363, I disagree. Although it is certainly Wheaton's conference to lose, I'm sticking with my prediction that Babson will get the auto bid this year. Babson swept them in the regular season to win the regular season title last year and has quietly put together one of the best programs in all of New England. Aizenstadt should challenge Gingras for pitcher of the year honors and possibly player of the year honors as well. Babson also should have their 3rd rookie of the year in P/OF Bill Miller.

[KSCfan]

Wheaton lost a thriller the other day to St Johns of Minnesota.  THey scored runs in bunches in the end to come back from 10-2.  Good sign the offense can score or bad sign the pitching gave up 10?

[OshDude]

Wheaton lost a thriller the other day to St Johns of Minnesota.  THey scored runs in bunches in the end to come back from 10-2.  Good sign the offense can score or bad sign the pitching gave up 10?

I'd say bad. The Johnnies can hit, but they're a middling Midwest team. No big deal in postseason terms, but I thought Wheaton would surely beat SJU.

[363dp]

Their defense and pitching were not at the level needed to maintain their reputation. Though this is still very early. They will get roles settled and improve. You will see them in Willamantic in May..............hopefully two different times!

[JustAFan]

Nice start for WPI's Connor Fahey, who pitched the Engineers to a season opening 3-2 win over St. Joe's of Maine yesterday in Lakeland, FL.  Fahey pitched 8 innings of 4 hit ball with 13 K's.  WPI pushed across the winning run in the bottom of the 9th.  St. Joe's started Pat Moran--didn't he pitch for UMaine for a couple of years after a great Legion career for one of the Portland teams? St. Joe's returned the favor in the second game of the doubleheader, scoring the winning run in the bottom of the seventh to win a 14-13 7 inning slugfest.