Beccaria Notches Win No. 400 as Baseball Downs Ursinus, 7-3

HAVERFORD, Pa. – Haverford College head baseball coach Dave Beccaria picked up his 400th career win on Wednesday afternoon, reaching the milestone during his 19th season, with all of those campaigns spent at the helm of the Fords. The Fords (12-11, 5-2 CC) picked up a crucial Centennial Conference win in the process, downing visiting Ursinus (12-11, 3-4 CC) by a 7-3 final at Kannerstein Field.

Beccaria, the winningest coach in Haverford baseball history, has led Haverford to three Centennial Conference titles (2012, 2014, 2016), and his Haverford squads have reached the Centennial Conference postseason in 12 of his campaigns. Beccaria is the fifth-winningest coach in Centennial Conference history and third among active coaches.

Haverford sent senior Luke Duris (2-2) to the hill for the midweek start, and the senior righty came up big in a key contest, cooling off what had been a prolific Ursinus offense. Duris pitched a gem, logging a career-high 7.2 innings pitched while allowing just three hits. Duris did not allow an earned run, and struck out a career-best 10 Bears.

The Fords offense backed their starter with runs in each of the first four innings of play against Ursinus hurler AJ Palumbo (3-3). Junior Will Karp singled to lead off the game, extending his hit streak to 11 games in the process. Junior Luke Wallis delivered an RBI sacrifice fly for the opening run of the contest, and first-year Zach Landry drilled his first career home run, knocking one off the scoreboard in right field to double the advantage to 2-0 in the second frame.

Karp added an RBI fielder's choice in the inning, and after Ursinus added an unearned run in the third, the Haverford offense went right back to work. Wallis extended his reached base streak to 23 games to begin the season with a towering double into left field, and junior Owen Plambeck then punched an RBI single into left for a 4-1 Haverford lead.

The Fords added two more in the fourth, an inning that was highlighted by a perfectly executed RBI bunt single off the bat of junior Harrison Burns. Burns extended his hit streak to 10 games in what has been a scorching start to conference competition. Plambeck later doubled into the left-center field gap in the sixth, extending the advantage to six at 7-1.

Ursinus grabbed a pair back in a ninth-inning rally, but senior Daniel Joffe sealed the victory with 1.1 innings in relief of Duris.

In total, four different Fords logged multi-hit games, with Landry having a stellar day at the plate with a career-best four hits, a run scored, and an RBI on his solo homer. Plambeck continued a hot streak with three hits, including the aforementioned double, while Karp and Burns both added a pair of singles.

For as potent as the Haverford offense looked in the friendly confines of Kannerstein Field, Duris was even more impressive on the hill as he left the Bears bewildered, retiring the first six hitters and continuing his string of dominance well into the contest. Duris struck out the side in the sixth, added a pair of strikeouts in the seventh, and got pinch hitter Jake Supran to fan in the eighth, leaving the contest after exactly 100 pitches thrown. 

The Fords will now head to Collegeville on Friday, wrapping up the home-and-home series on the campus of Ursinus at 3:30 p.m. before returning home for a doubleheader with No. 16 Johns Hopkins on Saturday beginning at noon.