LANCASTER, Pa. – Things continue to click for the Haverford College baseball team as it closed out a season sweep of Franklin & Marshall College with Friday afternoon's 17-4 pounding of the host Diplomats in a Centennial Conference rematch of a Fords win earlier in the week.
Haverford (17-16, 9-5 CC) used a 22-hit attack in the win over F&M (16-19, 5-9) which marched six different pitchers to the mound in trying to silence the Fords' bats.
The big inning for the visiting Fords was a six-run seventh which broke open a 3-3 deadlock. All six Haverford runs came after a two-out error marking all the runs as unearned, but the bats were popping as Alex Hudak's three-RBI double to left field caused the most damage with one swing. Jake Chaplin and Matt Liscovitz also picked up one RBI each in the inning.
For good measure, the Fords added eight runs in the top of the ninth, all earned this time, to push the final total to 17 -- or just three runs over what Haverford has averaged in its past five outings.
As loud as the pings of the bats rang out for the Fords on Friday, the Dips were unable to equal the volume as Haverford starting pitcher Jonny Black had a solid outing to earn the win. Black (3-0) allowed four runs off seven hits and no walks while striking out nine over eight innings of work. Each of the Diplomats' runs came one at a time in four different innings, and each run was generated from a lead-off hit.
When Black shut down the lead-off hitter in an inning he was deadly putting down the side in order three times and allowing only four batters to step into the box one other time. Black gave way to Max Gerard to start the ninth and Gerard allowed only one hit while fanning two.
Evan Lang (5-3) started and took the loss for F&M, lasting 6.2 innings after allowing four earned and four unearned runs off of 11 hits and four walks.
Chaplin finished the day 5-for-5 picking up three RBIs and scoring four runs. Hudak collected three hits and three RBIs with one run scored while Casey Fox added four hits, two RBIs and two runs. Jeremy Zoll reached safely four times and scored three times.
The Fords jump right back into conference action without a day off as Gettysburg College comes to Kannerstein Field on Saturday for a doubleheader scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m. A brief pre-game ceremony will take place beginning at 12:10 p.m. to officially dedicate the field in honor of Greg Kannerstein '63 who gave 41 years of devotion to the College as a student, teacher, dean, coach and administrator before his passing in 2009.