GETTYSBURG, Pa. - Senior Ryan Taylor scattered 10 hits for his school-record 23rd complete game, and the Gettysburg College baseball team celebrated its first-ever home conference playoff game with a 5-3 victory over Haverford College in the first round of the Centennial Conference Tournament on Friday at a sun-drenched Kirchhoff Field.
The second-seeded Bullets (30-11) move on to the winner's bracket to face fourth-seeded Franklin & Marshall College, a 3-0 winner over top-seeded and sixth-ranked Johns Hopkins University in the other first-round game.
Gettysburg and F&M will meet at 12:30 p.m. at Johns Hopkins, the site for the remainder of the tournament. Haverford (27-10) will now take on the Blue Jays in the loser's bracket on Saturday at 9 a.m.
Junior Al Posch put Gettysburg in front to stay with an RBI-single in the third inning while also pushing his hitting streak to 26 games. Senior Pat Cody went 3-for-4 and pulled into a tie for third in school history in career hits (181) while reaching base safely in his 30th straight game. He is now 12 for his last 16 and has hit safely in 28 of his last 29 games.
Junior Austin Davis added a 2-for-4 day at the plate for the Bullets while picking up his 100th career hit on an RBI infield single.
William Bannard went 3-for-4 for the Haverford while Nick Miranda finished 2-for-4.
The Bullets, who have now won 15 of their last 16 games, were making their first appearance in the Centennial Conference playoffs since 2007, when the team picked up its only previous CC tournament victory.
Gettysburg recorded its first 30-win season and has now won two more games than any team in program history.
"It's great for the team and the program," said Gettysburg Head Coach John Campo. "I'm just happy to be a part of it. Our players are doing a great job this year. We're playing great baseball and I just hope we can keep it going."
Taylor tossed 141 pitches, 102 of which were strikes, as Gettysburg pitchers threw their eighth straight complete game against Centennial Conference opponents. He worked out of trouble in each of the last three innings en route to his 21st career victory, which moved him into sole possession for second on the school's all-time wins list.
"This was a long week," said Taylor, who was coming off six days rest. "It was taking forever to get to Friday. But once we were out here warming up it was just another game at Kirchhoff."
"He's been such an outstanding performer for us and is such a great competitor," said Campo. "As long as he feels good and his pitch count is within certain parameters, there's no reason to take him out of the ballgame."
The Fords struck first for their only lead of the game with an unearned run in the third inning, when Miranda led off with a bunt single to third. Junior Nate Simon barehanded the ball but threw it over the first baseman, allowing Miranda to move up to second.
Two batters later, Miranda swiped third – his 30th steal of the year – and scored on an errant throw by junior catcher Cam MacDonald.
The Bullets answered in the bottom of the inning, however, with two runs against starter Jonny Black (0-1). Junior Patrick O'Grady drew a walk leading off before MacDonald was hit with a pitch. Davis then bunted the two runners up a bag, and O'Grady would score on a wild pitch to tie it. Posch then smoked a 3-1 pitch through the left side to plate MacDonald with what held up as the game-winning RBI. Black escaped further damage with a 6-3 inning-ending double play.
Gettysburg pushed its lead to 4-1 with two more runs in the fourth. Cody got things started with an infield single before Simon followed up with a single to left, stretching his hitting streak to 12. Junior Ben Roessle then bunted the two runners to second and third.
Black was removed from the game in favor of Max Gerard after hitting sophomore Scott Zanghellini to load the bases. Gerard then uncorked a wild pitch to score Cody, and three batters later with the bases loaded, Davis slapped a grounder halfway down the line to the third baseman, who was unable to make a play on it. Simon crossed the plate to give the Bullets a three-run advantage.
The Bullets scored their final run in the fifth against Gerard. For the third inning in a row the leadoff man reached for Gettysburg when junior Tommy LeNoir was walked before Cody slammed a single through the right side. Both runners advanced on Simon's groundout to first before Roessle lifted a deep fly to center to bring home LeNoir on a sacrifice fly.
Gerard stranded runners on the corners in the sixth before Cody greeted reliever Clay Bloszies with a hustling double into left center leading off the seventh. He moved to third on a wild pitch but was left there as Bloszies got out of it with two strikeouts and a groundout.
O'Grady led off the ninth with a bunt single past the pitcher and was sacrificed to second by MacDonald, but Bloszies again escaped.
Taylor (6-3), in the meantime, was in command during the middle innings, as he did not allow a runner past first from the fourth through the sixth. Haverford scored the final two runs of the game in the seventh, when Bannard led off with a single, stole second, and scored on Mike Tentilucci's single to center. Tentilucci advanced to second on the throw home, then scored on Casey Fox's two-out single to right. But Taylor retired the side by getting No. 3 hitter Justin Coulter to fly out.
Alex Hudak drew a leadoff walk in the ninth, and pinch-runner Marley Randazzo stole Haverford's fifth bag of the game. But Taylor dug in to get the final three outs.
The Fords put the leadoff man on base again in the ninth, when Bannard singled. Two batters later Miranda was hit with a pitch, but Taylor induced a pop-up into foul territory on the first-base side, where Roessle made a nice grab running toward rightfield. Taylor then struck out Coulter to end the game.