Springfield, Mass. - March 24, 2018 - The Springfield College baseball team opened up New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) play on Saturday at Archie Allen Field with a sweep of Emerson.  The Pride took the opener, 11-3, before producing a 4-0 win in the second.

With the wins,  Springfield now stands at 10-3-2, 2-0 in NEWMAC play while the Lions fall to 4-7, 0-2 in NEWMAC play.

Springfield will hit the diamond again on Tuesday when it hosts rival Wheaton College at 3:30 pm.

Game 1 - Springfield 11, Emerson 3

Four different players recorded a pair of hits to lead the Pride to an 11-3 victory over Emerson in its first game of the day.  Chad Shade (Pittsfield, Mass.) went 2-for-3 with three runs scored, while Cam Rivest (Agawam, Mass.) led all players with three RBI.  Brian Johnson (East Haddam, Conn.) tossed six innings of four-hit ball and struck out six to earn the win.

The Pride wasted little time getting on the board, plating a run in the first after Shade led off with a double down the line and scored one batter later when Jack Cooney (Pittsfield, Mass.) singled through the right side. 

The visitors answered with two runs in the third as they took advantage of a leadoff walk and later benefit from a RBI groundout and Springfield fielding error to take a 2-1 lead.

However, Springfield promptly responded in the bottom half of the frame with three runs to regain the lead for good.  Both Jake Gleason (South Dennis, Mass.) and Jason Bean (Middleboro, Mass.) earned consecutive one-out walks before Rivest hammered a two-run triple, which was followed by a sacrifice fly from Marcelino Diaz (Hartford, Conn.) for the 4-1 advantage.

Springfield blew open the game with a four-run fourth inning.  With runners on the corners and one out, Mark Joao (Wappingers Falls, N.Y.) came through with a run-scoring single before a two-run triple from Gleason and base knock from Bean accounted for three more Springfield runs.

The Lions tacked on their final run in the fifth on a two-out, run-scoring single before the Pride scratched out three runs in the bottom half to complete the scoring.  Shade got things things rolling with a one-out single before swiping his second bag of the game to get into scoring position.  Cooney followed with a RBI up the middle before Bean delivered a sacrifice fly and Rivest drove in his third run of the game with a single to center.

The relief duo of Dakota Aldrich (Ellington, Conn.) and John Daley (Huntington, Mass.) shut down Emerson in the final three innings, allowing just one hit as the Pride cruised to their first conference win of the season. 

Game 2 - Springfield 4, Emerson 0

Behind an outstanding pitching performance from Shawn Babineau (Ashland, Mass.), Springfield won its second conference game of the year and their 10th game of the year making them 8-1-1 in their last 10 games.

Coming in to this afternoon's game, Babineau ranked second in the nation in strikeout-to-walk ratio with an impressive 21 strikeouts to just one walk.  In today's outing, the sophomore threw all nine innings in the shutout victory, as he allowed just three hits while striking out 10 and not walking a batter en route to improving his record to 2-2 on the year.

On the offensive side of the ball, freshmen Noah Bleakley (Holland, Mass.) and Conor Santoianni (Stormville, N.Y.) each had multi-hit games to lead the Pride to a 4-0 victory.

The Pride picked up right where they left off in the first game when Chad Shade (Pittsfield, Mass.) was plunked in the leg with a fastball and then proceeded to steal both second and third base before Mark Joao (Wappingers Falls, N.Y.) hit a deep fly ball to right to drive him in and get the pride on the board in the first inning. 

Teams traded zeros on the board until the bottom of the fifth when Joao led off with a walk, and Bleakley followed by laying down a pefect bunt down the first base line for a base hit to put runners on first and second with no outs. After a ground ball advanced both runners, a fly ball from Brandon Drabinski (Lisbon, Conn.) scored Joao to put the Pride up, 2-0.

In the bottom of the sixth, back-to-back two out singles from Shade and David Wells (Shelton, Conn.) preceded by a walk from Joao loaded the bases for Bleakley. Bleakly hit a hard ground ball to the left side and beat the throw to first to score Shade and register his third hit of the day. A wild pitch on the next play score Wells and solidified a win for the Pride.

Babineau finished out the last two innings allowing just one hit to shut the door on the Lions and earn the win.