HAVERFORD, Pa. – Despite three home runs, the Haverford College baseball team lost to the Franklin and Marshall Diplomats, 9-6, at Kannerstein Field on Friday afternoon.
The Fords got the scoring started early in their first at bat. Senior Marley Randazzo led off with a double down the right field line and moved to third on a throwing error. Two batters later, sophomore Yannick Villanueva hit a fly ball to left that allowed Randazzo to score.
The Diplomats responded in the next half inning with two runs to jump in front. Mike Smeriglio doubled to center to lead off the frame and then advanced to third on an infield bunt single by Matt Mezansky. An RBI ground out by Brian Erb and Christopher Vincent's RBI double put the visitors in front.
Freshman Mike Schmandt tied the contest with his second home run of the season in the bottom of the fourth inning. With one out in the fifth, F&M's Luke Sieb singled and stole second. A single got him to third and then David Iacobucci's sacrifice bunt scored him to put the Diplomats ahead 3-2.
Franklin and Marshall tacked on three more runs in the top of the sixth inning on an error and two-run double by Sieb. Haverford countered in the bottom of the inning with a two-run home run by junior Zach Taylor to set the score at 6-4.
In the eighth inning, Dan Marano came up with two-out three-run double to put the Diplomats up 9-4. In the Fords' half of the frame, Schmandt registered his second home run of the contest with a deep drive that cleared the left field fence. The freshman became the first Ford to hit two home runs in a game since senior Casey Fox on Apr. 26, 2013. Haverford brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but couldn't push across any more runs.
Schmandt, Randazzo, Taylor and freshman Ben Furlong each had two hits in the game. The Fords finished five extra-base hits in the loss.
The baseball team drops to 11-18 overall and 7-9 in the Centennial Conference while Franklin and Marshall improves to 23-10 and 11-5 in conference action. Haverford is one of six teams vying for the final two spots in the Centennial Conference playoffs. Head coach Dave Beccaria's squad will travel to Gettysburg tomorrow for a doubleheader scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m.