COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Haverford College baseball team registered a 6-3 victory over the host Ursinus College Bears on Sunday afternoon, using a home run from Ben Furlong and an inside-the-parker from Matt Goss to help seal a season split with Ursinus. The Fords sit at 12-9-1 (3-2-1 CC) on the season while Ursinus is now 16-5 (5-1 CC) after Haverford handed the Bears their first conference loss of the season.
Haverford starter Dylan Livingston (3-1) locked horns with Connor Moriarty (1-1) in the matchup. Livingston and Moriarty dueled through the first two frames with Haverford striking for the first run of the contest in the top of the third inning. Nick Perez walked and advanced to scoring position on a wild pitch. After Thomas Vollaro reached on a bunt single, Ethan Lee-Tyson delivered a squeeze bunt, scoring Perez from third for a 1-0 lead.
After Livingston shut down the Bears in the bottom of the third, the Fords offense went to work to get their pitcher a larger cushion. Sam Partee singled to left center and Ben Furlong homered, his fourth home run of the weekend, picking up two RBI in the process just a day after setting program single-game marks in homers and total bases against Franklin & Marshall.
Livingston held the Bears without a hit through four full innings and Lee-Tyson singled and scored on a wild pitch in the top of the fifth as the Fords took a 4-0 advantage into the latter innings. Livingston surrendered a pair of hits in the fifth, but Kieran Geyer was thrown out at home trying to score on a Travis Kozak single to end the threat.
Livingston ran into trouble in the sixth, with CJ Diana doubling to plate a run and Vincent Terry picking up an RBI single to cut the Fords advantage to 4-2. Patrick O'Shea took over in relief and induced a flyout to end the inning. O'Shea surrendered an RBI double to Carter Usowski in the seventh, as the Bears made it a one run contest at 4-3.
Ursinus had an excellent chance to tie or take the lead in the eighth, as Terry doubled to leadoff the frame and Seth Regensburg walked. Travis Kozak singled to left center, loading the bases, but O'Shea got perhaps the biggest outs of the contest with a double play grounder to send Haverford to the ninth in the lead.
Goss hit a two-out, inside the park homer to plate Vollaro in the ninth, giving the Fords extra breathing room going into the bottom of the inning. O'Shea tossed a pefect ninth inning, striking out Usowski looking to end the contest.
Goss and Vollaro each had multi-hit contests for Haverford. Livingston struck out three over 5.2 innings pitched to take home the victory while O'Shea was credited with the save for 3.1 frames of relief, striking out two.
Haverford will be back in action on Wednesday as the Fords head to Chestertown, Md. for a midweek battle with Washington College. First pitch is slated for 3:30 p.m. Haverford will then host the Shoremen on Friday at 3:30 p.m. before heading to Baltimore on Saturday for a doubleheader at No. 13 Johns Hopkins.