Cambridge, MA --- The WPI softball team's NEWMAC Championship run came to a close on Saturday afternoon on the campus of MIT as the No. 6 Engineers dropped a 6-2 contest to No. 4 Babson. 
 
WPI put together an 11-game win streak towards the end of the regular season to earn themselves into the sixth seed in the NEWMAC Championships while the team's 23 victories mark the ninth-straight 20-win season for the Engineers (Excluding the partial 2020 and 2021 seasons). WPI finishes the 2024 campaign with a 23-19-1 record. 
 
Babson (27-17) moves on to face No. 3 MIT at 2 pm where the next NEWMAC Champion could be crowned.  The Beavers must defeat the Engineers this afternoon and tomorrow to claim the title.
 
Senior Alex Sheehan (Marion, MA) finished her last outing with the Engineers with a 1-for-3 day from right field while classmate Sydney Russell (Arlington, VA) went 1-for-4 from the leadoff spot. 
 
Shaina Lazarus (Thousand Oaks, CA) got the start for the Engineers and pitched five innings of action allowing five hits, three walks, a pair of strikeouts and four earned runs in the loss. 
 
The Engineers started the scoring off with a two-run top of the second inning. Emma Nagy (Monroe, WA) started things off with a single to centerfield, moving up to second on a single to third base from Destiny Lum (Kahalu'u, HI). 
 
Meg Sherwood (Norfolk, MA) laid down a sacrifice bunt to move both of the runners up and with two outs on the board, Virginia McKinney (Larchmont, NY) came through, beating out a single to second base that brought home both runners to give the Engineers a 2-0 advantage. 
 
Babson halved that lead in the bottom half of the frame but the Engineers were able to hold the Beavers off the board again all the way until the fifth inning of action. 
 
Babson took a 3-2 lead in the sixth inning, the team's first of the day, which called to a close starting pitcher Lazarus' time on the mound. However, Babson continued to pile on the runs in the sixth putting together a four-run frame and managed to hold off the Engineers in the top of the seventh to earn the victory and end WPI's tournament run.