HAVERFORD, Pa. – In a tale of two games, Haverford College and Gettysburg College split a Centennial Conference doubleheader Saturday at Kannerstein Field as the Fords pounded out a 13-1 victory in Game 1 but the Bullets earned the split with a quiet 3-1 victory in the nightcap.
Haverford (18-17, 10-6 CC) remains in second place within the league standings, one game ahead of three teams, including Gettysburg (20-11, 9-7), tied at 9-7 within the conference. The Fords, after a non-conference outing Tuesday at Alvernia University, close out the regular season on Saturday, April 28 at Centennial leader Johns Hopkins University.
Game 1 started off quickly for the Fords who picked up three runs in the bottom of the first behind consecutive doubles by Nick Miranda and Jake Chaplin to lead off the inning.
A 4-0 lead after two turned into an 11-0 advantage following a seven-run third inning by the Fords. Jeremy Zoll led off the hit parade with a single and the turnstile was greased and swinging freely afterward. Haverford accumulated four more singles and saw four more batters reach safely via walks or being hit by a pitch -- all with two outs in the inning.
Gettysburg scratched for its lone run of the game in the sixth off Haverford starter Tommy Bergjans (4-3) who threw seven innings, allowing seven hits and two walks while fanning five, to earn the win. Jonny Williams pitched a perfect eighth in relief of Bergjans and Brett Cohen finished off the Bullets in the ninth.
Miranda and Chaplin seemed to be on base after every at-bat for the Fords in the opener. Both registered two hits, walked once and scored three runs apiece and Miranda finished with a pair of RBIs. Zoll and Mike Tentilucci also collected multi-hit games for Haverford with two hits each.
The Bullets' Eric Hungerford (3-4) took the loss after lasting just 2.2 innings as the starter, surrendering nine runs off eight hits and a walk.
The nightcap was in stark contrast of the opener for the Fords who managed only seven hits and a run off Gettyburg ace Ryan Taylor who threw a complete game for the win.
Haveford starter Kyle Waney worked out of a jam in the third before surrendering an unearned run in the fourth. The Bullets pushed an earned run across in the sixth, breaking a 1-1 tie, but Waney induced a one-out, inning-ending double-play grounder from Zach Parsons to prevent the inning from becoming Havorford-esque.
The Fords earned their lone run of the game in the bottom of the fourth. Zoll led off with a single up the middle for the inning's only hit. He stole second then moved to third on a Casey Fox flyout before coming home on Alex Hudak's sacrifice to right field.
Haverford filled the bases in the fifth but were unable to push the lead runner home, then had a runner in scoring position in the eighth before coming away without a run in that frame.
Waney (3-1) suffered his first defeat of the season after going six innings and allowing one earned and one unearned run off of eight hits and a walk. He also struck out one batter.
Taylor (4-3) earned the win going the distance and surrendering just the one run off seven hits and two walks while fanning two.
Saturday's game began with a brief pre-game ceremony to officially dedicate the baseball facility as Kannerstein Field, in honor of Haverford's beloved former athletic director and head baseball coach, Greg Kannerstein '63, who passed away in 2009.