GETTYSBURG, Pa. – In a game filled with dramatic moments, Justin Coulter singled home the game-winning run in the bottom of the 12th inning to give second-seeded Haverford College a 2-1 victory over top-seeded and 21st-ranked Gettysburg in the winner-take-all final of the Centennial Conference baseball championship tournament Sunday afternoon in front of a large and spirited crowd at Kirchhoff Field.
Haverford (22-18), which received an automatic bid in the NCAA Division III tournament, also won 3-0 over the Bullets in the opening game of the championship round on Sunday to force a deciding final.
The Fords captured their second Centennial Conference title after claiming its first championship in 2012, and they became just the second team in the 12-year history of the tournament to win the title after losing their opening-round game. Haverford rallied from its loss to Muhlenberg College on Thursday to claim two victories in the loser's bracket on Saturday before its sweep on Sunday.
Gettysburg (33-8), making its first-ever appearance in the Centennial Conference championship game, will now hope for a possible at-large berth in the NCAA playoffs. The field will be announced on May 12 on NCAA.com.
Haverford shortstop William Bannard was named the tournament MVP after hitting .450 while going 9-for-15 in the team's four wins.
Making just his second start of the season, Max Gerard threw a six-hit shutout in the opener for Haverford before Tommy Bergjans - the Fords opening-round starter on Thursday – came on to throw six shutout innings of relief on two days rest to pick up the victory in the clincher, allowing just one hit and striking out five.
The Fords out-hit Gettysburg 17-10 in the deciding game – the longest in the history of the Centennial Conference tournament – but left 17 runners on base, as the Bullet pitching staff worked out of trouble throughout the game while throwing 10 straight scoreless innings from the second through the 11th.
In the bottom of the ninth, junior Mike Kielbasa kept the Bullets alive when he fielded a single in leftfield and threw out the potential tournament-clinching run at the plate, igniting a packed Gettysburg crowd. But Haverford would go on to load the bases with one out in the 12th against sophomore Luke Lawrence – who kept the Bullets alive by escaping jams in four previous innings – before Coulter lifted a liner over Kielbasa's head in left for just his second hit of the tournament after starting 1-for-13.
In the opening game, Haverford supplied Gerard (3-1) with all the offense he would need when it plated two unearned runs in the top of the second against freshman starter Rich Power (Toms River, N.J./Monsignor Donovan), who would throw four scoreless innings before yielding a final run on two hits and a walk in the seventh.
Gettysburg put up its biggest threat in the fourth, when it loaded the bases with one out after Kielbasa hit Gerard in the leg with a screaming line-drive single. But Gerard stayed in the game and recorded a pair of infield outs, starting a string of 12 straight batters retired.
The Bullets put runners on first and second with two outs in the eighth but Gerard got out of it with a flyout, then retired the side in order in the ninth. He walked just one and struck out four.
Power (5-2) scattered eight hits and three walks while fanning six. Senior Al Posch finished 2-for-4 in the opener for Gettysburg.
The Fords took an early 1-0 lead against senior starter Chris Yoda in the deciding game, as Bannard singled, stole second, and scored on a single from Jared Deveau. Gettysburg answered in the third on three-straight two-out singles against Ford starter Kyle Waney, as seniors Nate Simon and Tommy LeNoir started the rally before Kielbasa sliced a single to left, bringing home Simon.
Gettysburg then dug in defensively, starting when senior catcher Cam MacDonald threw out a runner attempting to steal second before Yoda stranded runners on the corners in the third.
One inning later, Haverford loaded the bases on two singles and an error, and with two outs Gettysburg head coach John Campo summoned senior Drew Felsenthal out of the bullpen. Pitching on just one day of rest after starting in the Bullets 6-4 opening-round win over Johns Hopkins, Felsenthal induced Bannard into a flyout to end the inning.
Felsenthal would retire the eight batters he faced before leadoff hitter Nick Miranda singled and went to second on a throwing error in the seventh. After a walk, Felsenthal was replaced by Lawrence. MacDonald then came up big again, gunning down Miranda attempting to steal third, before Lawrence ended the inning with a flyout.
After its run in the third, Gettysburg threatened in each of the next three innings but was unable to score again versus Waney. Bergjans was called on in the seventh, and he would retire the first nine batters he faced.
Lawrence, meanwhile, continued to play the role of Houdini, starting in the eighth when he left runners on the corners with one out. Then in the ninth, Bannard drew a one-out walk before stealing second, setting up Kielbasa's defensive heroics.
The Bullets finally reached Bergjans in the 10th, when Posch led off with a single. However, the Fords quickly snuffed out the rally when Bergjans struck out a batter and Posch was thrown out stealing second.
Bergjans (8-2) retired the next five batters before senior Mike Elisio reached on an error leading off the 11th. He was bunted to second by MacDonald, but Bergjans got out of it with a strikeout and groundout.
Lawrence left the bases loaded in the 10th, when Kielbasa flagged down a fly ball into the left-center gap to end the inning, before tossing a three-up, three-won 11th. He got the leadoff man in the 12th, but Haverford would load the bases, reaching on an error, an intentional walk, and a single before Coulter's game-winner.
LeNoir finished 3-for-5 while Lawrence (4-1) scattered eight hits and two walks over five innings. Casey Fox went 3-for-5 for Haverford.