HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College baseball team (25-12) defeated the McDaniel Green Terror (30-9) in the opening round of the Centennial Conference playoffs on a chilly day at Kannerstein Field. The second seeded Fords hit four home runs in the game to power themselves to the 14-5 win. This power surge came just days after the team hit a program record six home runs in a win over Gettysburg.

Starting pitcher Justin Herring walked the McDaniel leadoff hitter, who later came around to score to give the Green Terror an early 1-0 lead but he settled in shortly after and induced a double player to end the inning. The righty had things mostly under control from that point forward, striking out five batters through the first three innings. Herring lasted six innings, striking out 11 and giving up two unearned runs. The Centennial Conference ERA leader lowered his earned run average to 1.31 and earned the win, improving his record to a perfect 7-0.

Zach Taylor started the run production when he turned on a pitch to send it to right field for a home run. The round-tripper would be the first of four for the Fords as Spencer Sohmer would go deep with a two run shot in the fifth inning, and then Ben Furlong and Ethan Lee-Tyson would go back-to-back in the seventh. Despite McDaniel pitcher Zach Kronick being one of the best in the conference, the Fords have managed four home runs off of him this season.

Outfielder Thomas Vollaro led off the third inning with an infield single. After Ethan Lee-Tyson reached via a hit by pitch, Ben Verducci drove in Vollaro on a single to center field with Lee-Tyson also scoring on the player after an error to give the Fords a 3-1 advantage. The Haverford right fielder finished the game a perfect 4-for-4 with three runs scored.

The Fords did most of their damage in the fifth inning when they scored five runs, starting with Sohmer's home run. Later in the inning, Matt Goss hit a frozen rope up the middle to score Nick Ott and Ben Furlong drove in two more runners to make the score 8-2. Goss and Furlong each finished the game with three hits in five at bats. Furlong drove in a team-high five runs.

Two innings later, Haverford broke the game wide open with Furlong's three-run shot to right field followed by Lee-Tyson making it back-to-back with a solo homer in the next at bat.

The Fords will now travel to Baltimore to face top seeded Johns Hopkins, which defeated Gettysburg earlier in the day, at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. The winner of that game will automatically move on to Sunday's championship game while the loser will take on the winner of McDaniel/Gettysburg.

Check out Championship Central for more coverage on Haverford's postseason athletics.