SWARTHMORE, Pa. - The Haverford College baseball team (18-17, 8-7 CC) took down host Swarthmore (18-16-1, 7-7-1 CC) by a 15-9 final in a wild one at Clothier Field, rallying with an eight-run fourth inning after the Garnet took an early 3-0 lead. With three regular season games remaining, the Fords currently hold sole possession of the fourth seed in the CC playoff chase.
The Fords roped 15 hits, including six for extra bases. Six different Fords recorded multiple hits, a contingent paced by Jack Wallis, who tallied three, while Daniel Rosman, Harry Genth, Zach Becker, Chuck Norton, and Pranav Rane all tapped out multi-hit days.
Sam Cohen (5-1) picked up the win on the hill for the Fords, striking out eight and allowing six hits and four earned runs in his six innings.
Swarthmore jetted out to the early lead behind back-to-back doubles from Aidan Sullivan and Matthew Silvestre, putting the hosts up 2-0 early. Garnet pushed another run across as Max Beadling tallied an RBI single, as suddenly the Fords had work to do.
At that point, Haverford dutifully went to work offensively with some timely hitting. After Zach Crampton reached on an error to begin the inning, Rane walked and Rosman tapped a single to left to load the bases. Genth delivered a sacrifice fly for Haverford's first run of the game, and Jack Wallis then punched an RBI single into center to plate both Rosman and Rane tying the score at 3-3.
In the fourth, Chuck Norton doubled and the bases were quickly loaded as Rane reached on an infield single after Crampton was hit by a pitch. Rosman delivered an RBI single to put Haverford ahead, and Genth then cleared the bases with a huge three-RBI double into the right-center field gap. Wallis followed with a single as Haverford looked to step on the metal. With the score now 8-3, Jonny Flieder reached on a hit by pitch, and Norton came up for his second at-bat of the inning. Norton unleashed a three-run homer, scoring Flieder and Wallis to completely open up the game at 11-3.
A bases-loaded walk to Crampton plated a run in the sixth, and Rane followed with a sacrifice fly to put Haverford up 13-4. More insurance runs came in the seventh, with Wallis and Becker each doubling before the 15th run came across on a throwing error.
With Haverford now ahead 15-4, Swarthmore added a last-ditch rally in the seventh and eighth innings with Sullivan adding a two-run homer. Swarthmore added two more runs in the eighth without the benefit of a hit, but Mitchell Pagano twirled the final 1.2 innings of the contest, striking out two without allowing a hit to lock things down for the Fords.
Swarthmore currently leads the Hood Trophy rivalry series, 7 to 6.5, as Baseball can now even things up heading into the lacrosse doubleheader this weekend by completing the season sweep on Friday.
The Fords will now wrap up the home-and-home series with the Garnet on Friday at 3:30 p.m. in the regular season home finale at Kannerstein Field. Any weather related changes will be announced on HaverfordAthletics.com