HAVERFORD, Pa. - Haverford College's Matt Liscovitz homered to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning pulling his Fords to within one run of visiting Rowan University, but the No. 15 Profs held on for a 5-4 win, stranding the Fords' Mike Tentilucci at second base to end Friday afternoon's non-conference baseball outing at Kannerstein Field.
Both Haverford (7-10) and Rowan (12-4) pushed runs across one at a time over the length of the game.
The early lead went to the Fords with Justin Coulter's run in the bottom of the first, but Rowan knotted the game at one in the top-half of the next inning then nabbed its first lead of the game with another run in the top of the third.
A one-run fourth provided the Profs with a 3-1 lead but Haverford clawed back with a run in the bottom of the fourth then tied the game with an unearned run in the fifth.
Singles by Jeremy Zoll and Alex Hudak sandwiched around Casey Fox's fielder's choice set up Liscovitz for his first RBI of the game as the right fielder banged out a single to left to bring home Fox.
In the fifth, Clay Bloszies reached on an error to lead off the inning and eventually came around to score the tying run on a Coulter single and Rowan throwing error with two outs.
Rowan scratched out a run in both the sixth and seventh innings to wrest back the lead, 5-3, before Liscovitz's dinger over the fence in right-center field clipped the advantage to just one.
Pinch-hitter Bobby Hubley was hit by a one-out pitch and gave way to Tentilucci as a pinch-runner. Nick Miranda moved Tentilucci to second with a ground out but that was as close as the tying run would get as Rowan reliever Kyle Brown induced a short pop-up to the shortstop to end the game.
Pitching was solid for both teams as starters Tommy Bergjans for the Fords and Curtis Arsi for Rowan limited damage.
Bergjans (1-2) took the loss giving up five runs on nine hits over 6.2 innings while striking out four and walking none. Of the nine hits he surrendered, just two were of the extra-base variety. Michael de Armas closed out the final 2.1 innings for Haverford giving up just one hit and a walk with one strikeout.
Arsi (1-0) picked up the win throwing seven innings during which he allowed one earned and two unearned runs while fanning six and walking none. Brown earned the save, his first of the season.
Coulter, Zoll and Hudak collected two hits apiece in the loss, and Liscovitz finished with a 3-for-4 day producing a pair of RBIs and one run scored.
Haverford has the weekend off before jumping into Centennial Conference action beginning with Tuesday's home game against Swarthmore College at 3:30 p.m.