BABSON PARK, Mass. - With just one week left in the 2025 regular season, Coast Guard baseball earned a crucial sweep of NEWMAC rivals Babson College in Sunday afternoon's contest.
Clutch late-game hitting from the bottom of the order lifted the Bears to a 6-3 win in game one, while the second contest required the visitors to snuff their hosts' ninth inning comeback attempt for a 7-6 win.
Babson moves to 7-6 in NEWMAC games (22-10 overall), the first loss breaking an eight-game win streak. They'll look to return to the wins column when they host conference foes Wheaton College (Mass.) on Tuesday, April 29th.
Babson put game one starter
John DiMarsico (Severna Park, Md.) in a tricky situation, putting runners on second and third with two outs in the first inning. A single by Zander Teator brought both runners in, but he ended up as the third out after being caught in a rundown trying to steal second base.
It took until the third inning for Coast Guard to equalize.
Luke Percifield (Pinellas Park, Fla.) and
Carson Cho (Haymarket, Va.) set the table with back-to-back singles before
Nate Stafford (Jupiter, Fla.) put his team ahead with a home run over the right field fence.
DiMarsico shook off the first inning and kept the Beavers at bay apart from a single and a hit batter.
Raymond Priddy (Chico, Calif.) took over in the fifth and went 1-2-3 with two strikeouts before allowing Babson to tie it up with an RBI double in the sixth.
Coast Guard took the lead back in the top seventh thanks to clutch hitting by
Kael Godshalk (Bangor, Pa.), who drove in go-ahead runner
Wyatt Duthu (Madison, Ala.) with a single to center field. Priddy induced another 1-2-3 in the bottom half on three grounders.
Jackson Dorsey (Newark, Del.) was handed the ball to start the eighth and preserved the 4-3 lead by getting three straight outs after walking the leadoff man. Percifield gave his teammate some insurance in the top ninth with a two-run single up the middle.
The Bears turned to Dorsey again in the bottom half, giving him the opportunity for his third save of the season. The sophomore delivered, shutting the door on the Beavers with two fly outs and a strikeout after allowing a leadoff single. Priddy was credited with the win.
The Bears started game two with a bang thanks to
Parker Madden (Ruston, La.), who clobbered a two-run homer to right center to give his team the early lead, but the hosts jumped on second starter
Harrison Milbert (Kingston, Mass.) for three runs in the second inning.
Coast Guard equalized after Stafford laced a single up the middle to bring Cho around from second base. They took a 4-3 lead in the fifth, with Cho taking advantage of a 6-3 double play to score from third after he reached on a double.
Two more runs crossed for the Bears in the top sixth. Percifield was able to bring
Connor Cilento (Point Pleasant, N.J.) in from third and move
Jack Steel (Medford Lakes, N.J.) up from second after hitting a sacrifice fly to center field, and then took advantage of an error in the next at-bat to make it 6-3.
Bridging the gap on the mound in the third through sixth innings was
Tyler Michalek (Haslet, Tex.). The hard-throwing sophomore allowed five baserunners during his time and stranded four, with the other being the victim of a double play.
Ryan Karman (Sayville, N.Y.) took the mound for the seventh and eighth and allowed just one baserunner via hit between the two frames. He went back out there in the ninth, but Thomas Parisi ambushed him for a leadoff home run to right field to cut the lead down to 7-4.
Karman got the next two batters out before hitting a batter. Ryan Liss took advantage, clearing the bases with a home run to right center to make it a one-run game. Karman was then swapped for
Jack Gausselin (Long Beach, Ind.), who picked up the easiest save of his life with a fly out to left field.
Bears baseball will look to continue their winning ways in their second of two versus Springfield College (3-9 NEWMAC, 10-21 overall) on April 29th. Coast Guard took the first game of the season, 5-1, a week prior on April 22nd.
