FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Haverford College baseball team (4-1) defeated Illinois College, 9-5, after an onslaught of runs, including five in the fourth inning, and seven scoreless innings by starter Grant Finn on Tuesday. With the win over the Blueboys (2-3), Haverford has now won four of its first five games to open the 2016 season.

Finn struck out three and walked just one, giving up five hits and inducing 10 ground balls over his seven innings, picking up his first win of the season.

Senior catcher Nick Ott sparked the offense with the Fords' first home run of the season, a solo shot to left center in the third inning. From that point on, Haverford would score the next eight runs of the game.

In the fourth inning, when Haverford did a majority of its damage, left fielder Matt Goss hit a bases-clearing double with the bases loaded. The very next batter, Spencer Sohmer, doubled to drive in Goss, chasing Illinois' starting pitcher Ethan Crain. Crain gave up six earned runs over 3.1 innings and struck out none. Later in the inning, Zach Taylor singled to score Sohmer, making the score 6-0.

From that point, the game went scoreless until the bottom of the seventh when the Fords struck again. After right fielder Yannick Villanueva singled to start the inning, Ben Furlong drove him in with a double to center. Jared Turner was hit by a pitch and later driven in by Ben Verducci. Ethan Lee-Tyson reached on a fielder's choice and rounded the bases to score on Sohmer's second double of the day.

Sohmer finished the game 2-for-5 with two RBI and a run scored. Verducci went 3-for-5 and is now batting .450 on the season. Goss, Ott, and Furlong had two hits each. Jared Deveau came in to pitch a perfect 1-2-3 inning in relief, punching out one batter.

After a day off Wednesday, Haverford continues its getaway games in Florida with a matinee contest against Hiram College at 3 p.m. on Thursday. Haverford's first home game will be played Tuesday, March 15 against Immaculata at 3:30 p.m.