LANCASTER, Pa. – Senior Eric Hungerford and junior Luke Lawrence combined on a six-hitter and the Gettysburg College baseball team survived a pair of late rallies to register a 3-2, 13-inning victory at Franklin & Marshall College in its Centennial Conference (CC) opener Wednesday afternoon.
The Bullets (12-5, 1-0 CC) led 2-0 heading into the bottom of the ninth before the Diplomats (11-5, 1-2 CC) forced extra innings with a pair of unearned runs against Hungerford. After the Bullets scored in the top of the 13th, F&M loaded the bases in the bottom of the frame but Lawrence (1-1) played the role of Houdini for the third inning in a row, escaping with a groundout to end the game. He also induced inning-ending double plays in both the 11th and 12th.
Hungerford came away with a no-decision despite tying a career-high with 10 strikeouts and limiting the hosts to four hits.
Sophomore Connor Tom and senior Cory Karagjozi stroked two hits apiece while senior Mike Kielbasa had a pair of RBIs for the Bullets, who were limited to eight hits by five Diplomat pitchers.
Facing reliever Brandon Theriault (0-2), Kielbasa drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI-groundout in the 13th, scoring junior Henry Klimowicz from third. Klimowicz had reached on an error by the third baseman with one out, moved to second on the throw, and advanced to third on a passed ball.
The Diplomats found some life in the bottom of the inning when leadoff hitter Brett Poniros was hit by a pitch with one out. An error put another runner on base, and after a sacrifice bunt, Lawrence hit another batter to load the bases. But he held on to pick up the win in relief.
The two starting pitchers tossed seven scoreless innings apiece to start the game despite working out of numerous jams. Taking on Sean Cosgriff, the Bullets put runners into scoring position in four of the first seven innings, including the seventh, when sophomore Will Anderson smoked a one-out double. However, Cosgriff induced an inning-ending double play in the sixth and got a pair of flyouts to end the seventh following Anderson's two-bagger.
Gettysburg finally broke through with a pair of runs in the eighth. Tom led off with a single and was bunted to second by junior Steve Wright. Tom was thrown out at third on a fielder's choice, but the Bullets would load the bases following a walk to Klimowicz and an infield single from Karagjozi. Kielbasa pushed across the game's first run by drawing a four-pitch walk, and after a pitching change, Gettysburg added an insurance run when Anderson's grounder to third was misplayed.
Hungerford retired the first eight batters he faced before yielding a two-out walk and single in the third. But he got out of it with a groundout and would not allow another runner into scoring position until the seventh. David Iacobucci led off the inning with a single and was bunted to third, but Hungerford set down the final two batters with groundouts back to himself.
Hungerford fanned the side in the eighth, but a Gettysburg error put a runner on first in the bottom of the ninth. After a strikeout, Hungerford hit a batter, then threw a wild pitch to put runners on second and third. Brian Erb then made it 2-1 with a groundout to second before Christopher Vincent tied it up with a single through the right side. But Hungerford would keep the Bullets alive by striking out his final batter.
Neither side was able to get anything going offensively over the first three extra innings, and the Bullets went down in order from the 10th through the 12th. The Diplomats put a runner on first in the 11th and had men on first and second in the 12th, but Lawrence coaxed a 5-4-3 double play to end the 11th and a 1-6-3 twin killing to escape the 12th.
The two teams face off again on Thursday with another nine-inning affair at Gettysburg starting at 3:30 p.m.