St. Mary's City, Md. – The St. Mary's College of Maryland baseball team rallied from a 3-1 deficit to push extra innings but could not get one more run across home plate as the Seahawks (3-6) dropped a 4-3 decision in 12 innings to the Gettysburg College Bullets Sunday afternoon.
Gettysburg's Nate Simon (Gwynedd Valley, Pa./Abington Friends) connected on a two-out double to right field to bring home Alex Posch (Hopedale, Mass./Hopedale), who had reached base on an error as the second batter of the inning, for the eventual game-winning run. The Seahawks' first-year reliever Ben Goldsmith (Ellicott City, Md./Centennial) got GC's next batter to ground out to end the 12th.
In its half of the 12th inning, St. Mary's opened up with back-to-back singles from outfielders Mike Schmidt (Burtonsville, Md./Blake) and Brad Dioguardo (Owings Mills, Md./Franklin). Schmidt, who represented the game-tying run, was thrown out at third following a fielder's choice to senior Stefano Muscatelli (Warwick, R.I./Toll Gate). Sophomore Paul Roemer (Westminster, Md./Westminster) drew a walk to load the bases with one out on the board. The Bullets stopped the SMCM rally by converting a double play to end the game.
Senior Corey Napier (Hollywood, Md./St. Mary's Ryken) paced the Seahawks at the plate with a 3-for-5 effort and two RBI while sophomore Zach Nadolny (Bel Air, Md./Bel Air) added a pair of hits and an RBI. Goldsmith was saddled with the Seahawk loss after pitching 5.0 innings in relief, allowing the unearned run on three hits with one strikeout.
Gettysburg (1-0) struck first in the third when Posch doubled to right field with two outs on the board to drive in Brett Norton (Millwood, N.Y./Horace Greeley), who was hit by a pitch. The Bullets tacked on two more runs in the fourth to stake a 3-0 advantage.
St. Mary's cut the lead to two in the bottom of the fourth inning as Napier picked up his first home run of the season. The Seahawks then closed the gap to 3-2 in the sixth on a Nadolny RBI single to score sophomore Luke Green (Bowie, Md./DeMatha Catholic) who led off the inning with a walk. The game-tying run came in the eighth as Roemer scored on Napier's RBI single.
In the ninth, Goldsmith retired the Gettysburg lineup in order to give the Seahawks a fighting chance but St. Mary's was not able to muster up any offense, sending the game into extra innings.
Austin Davis (New York, N.Y./Riverdale Country) and Patrick O'Grady (Floral Park, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy) paced the Bullets offensively with three hits each while Drew Felsenthal (Mount Kisco, N.Y./Horace Greeley) picked up the win in relief, giving up one run on four hits with three strikeouts in 5.0 innings.
St. Mary's will return to the diamond on Wednesday, March 6 when the Seahawks welcome Randolph-Macon College to the Hawk's Nest for a non-conference contest. First pitch is slated for 2:00 pm.
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