Junior Ryan Taylor threw eight shutout innings and struck out 11 before Gettysburg held off a late Franklin & Marshall rally to win its Centennial Conference opener 4-0 at Kirchhoff Field Tuesday afternoon.

The Diplomats threatened in the top of the ninth, loading the bases on an error followed by a pair of walks against junior reliever John Donovan. But with a 2-0 count, sophomore Chris Yoda came on for a three-pitch save, throwing a fastball by J.T. Triantos to end the game.

Gettysburg (11-4, 1-0 CC) won its fourth game in a row to finish off a four-game homestand and captured its Centennial Conference opener for the first time since 2008.

Senior Clint O'Brien went 3-for-4 to lead the Bullets at the plate while sophomores Alex Freeman and Al Posch each finished 2-for-4. Posch extended his hitting streak to nine.

Triantos went 2-for-5 for Franklin & Marshall (11-8, 0-1 CC).

The Bullets scored all of their runs with two outs in a five-hit third against F&M starter Matt Valente. Freshman Cory Karagjozi led off with a single and was bunted to second by senior Drew Roy. Two batters later, freshman Patrick O'Grady provided Gettysburg with all the run support it would need when he went after the first pitch and singled through the left side to score Karagjozi. Posch followed with an RBI-single of his own before junior Pat Cody capped the inning with a two-run single up the middle.

The outburst came after Taylor (3-1) worked out of a jam in the top of the inning. With one out and a runner on first, Alex Vescera lifted a blast into the leftfield corner, beyond the edge of the fence and into foul ground for a ground-rule double. But Taylor responded by striking out the top two batters in the order.

Taylor also escaped danger in each of his final three innings. Triantos led off the sixth with a double but was left at second after Taylor induced a pair of flyouts and a groundout. He also stranded a runner on second in the seventh and left Diplomats on first and second in the eighth, when O'Grady roamed well into the right-center gap to haul in a fly for the final out.

The Bullets had a runner on base in each of their final five innings but were unable to plate a run against Valente and reliever Andrew Green, stranding seven. Green walked his first batter to load the bases with two outs in the sixth before escaping on a grounder to himself.

Valente (1-3) suffered the loss, allowing four runs on eight hits and a walk while striking out six over 5 2/3 innings. Green threw 2 1/3 innings of shutout ball.

Taylor, who spun a three-hit shutout over Elizabethtown in his last time out, has now thrown 19 consecutive scoreless innings spanning three appearances and dating back to March 16. He missed his career high in strikeouts by one.

Yoda earned his first collegiate save, which was also the first by a Gettysburg pitcher since Matt Karis '11 tossed the final three innings of a 7-3 win over Stevenson University in 2010.

The two teams meet again on Friday, when they meet in Lancaster for another nine-inning game starting at 3:30 p.m.