TOWSON, Md. – Carter Burns and Zach Augustine combined on a three-hit shutout and Johns Hopkins University snapped Gettysburg's 23-game winning streak, edging the 22nd-ranked Bullets 2-0 in a Centennial Conference (CC) game Friday afternoon at Towson University's Schuerholz Park.
One swing of the bat proved to be the difference, as Riche Carbone's two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth marked the game's only runs.
The Bullets (26-4, 11-1 CC) suffered their conference loss of the season and their first loss since their 14-2 setback to Alvernia University during their Spring Break trip to Florida back on March 11, ending the longest winning streak in school history by nine games.
Senior Drew Felsenthal started on the mound for Gettysburg and went the distance, scattering eight hits and two walks while striking out four over eight innings. Senior Tommy LeNoir went 2-for-4 at the plate.
Burns (4-2) worked the first seven innings for the Blue Jays (17-11, 5-6 CC) to pick up the win before Augustine pitched the final two frames to earn the save. Burns allowed three hits and three walks while striking out five.
Christopher Casey and Raul Shah each went 2-for-4 at the plate for Hopkins.
The game was moved to Towson due to the construction of a new field at Johns Hopkins.
Gettysburg had several scoring opportunities but left eight men on base. Senior Austin Davis led off the game with a walk but was eventually thrown out at the plate on a single by senior Nate Simon.
The Bullets best chance to score came in the fifth, when it loaded the bases on an error, a hit batsman, and a walk, but Burns escaped with a strikeout. He was pulled from the game in the eighth after he issued a lead-off walk to pinch-hitter Cory Karagjozi, but Augustine came on to induce a 5-4-3 double play and an inning-ending groundout.
Gettysburg put two more runners on with one out in the ninth when Simon walked and junior Mike Kielbasa had his fly ball to leftfield dropped. But Augustine got the final two outs to end it.
Felsenthal (6-2) worked out of trouble in the first, when the Bullets turned a 6-4-3 inning-ending double play with the bases loaded. After allowing a leadoff double in the second, Felsenthal would retire the next nine batters.
The Blue Jays broke through in the fifth, when Conor Reynolds hit a leadoff single before Carbone homered to left, ending Felsenthal's consecutive scoreless inning streak at 29 1/3. But Felsenthal dug in and allowed just one runner to reach second base the rest of the game and rolled up another double play – a 3-4-1 twin killing – to end the seventh.