ABERDEEN, Md. – After stormy conditions in the Delaware Valley necessitated a venue change, The Haverford College baseball team dropped a doubleheader to Gwynedd Mercy on Sunday afternoon in Aberdeen. The Fords fell 3-2 in eight innings before facing a 10-2 defeat in the second game of two scheduled seven inning contests at the Ripken Experience Complex.
Haverford falls to 6-5 on the season with the pair of defeats while the Griffins are now 6-4.
Acting as the home team in both contests, Haverford sent freshman Brandon Jenkins to the mound as the starter in the first contest Jenkins and Gwynedd Mercy's Gino Tropodi each pitched four scoreless frames to begin the day before allowing runs to cross.
Jenkins surrendered a pair of unearned runs in the fifth inning. Tommy Nardini walked and came into score on a throwing error before Justin Curtin delivered an RBI single for a 2-0 advantage.
Haverford answered in the sixth as Thomas Vollaro singled ahead of a Will Karp single that put two on with no out. Ethan Lee-Tyson delivered a sacrifice bunt that moved both runners into scoring position and after the Griffins went to the bullpen, summoning Jared Gorman in relief of Tropodi, Spencer Sohmer picked up an RBI with a groundout, cutting the lead to 2-1.
Sam Partee led off the seventh with a double and Ben Furlong followed with a single to move a pair into scoring position. Matt Goss laid down a squeeze bunt that tied the contest at 2-2, but Furlong was thrown out going to third base and the game headed to extra innings knotted.
Jared Deveau came out for his second inning of work in the top of the eighth and Curtin promptly reached on a throwing error with one out, advancing to second. With two down, Dave Tatoian singled; scoring Curtin for the 3-2 lead heading into Haverford's half of the inning.
Thomas Vollaro walked to lead off the bottom of the frame against Gorman, but the hurler responded to down the next three Fords to give the Griffins the game one win.
Vollaro was the only hitter in the contest from either squads with multiple hits.
In the second game, Haverford plated a pair of first inning runs against starter Mike Di Ianni. Karp reached on an error, advancing to second base ahead of a Sohmer single that put Karp at third base. Sohmer stole second base and Ben Verducci delivered a two-RBI single for the early Haverford lead.
The Griffins responded with three in the top of the second against Haverford starter Tom Phillips. A bases loaded walk scored a run and Curtin delivered an RBI single in the frame. Phillips got out of a jam in the fourth inning, with Owen Plambeck catching two runners stealing.
In the fifth, Gwynedd Mercy rallied for four runs on four hits as Phillips was chased from the contest. Austin Castellanos came into the game in relief and allowed a Ryan Keen home run as the Griffins broke the contest open at 10-2.
John Masella and Daniel Joffe finished the contest with 1.2 innings of scoreless relief for Haverford, combining to allow just one hit while striking out three.
Di Ianni kept Haverford off the board with six scoreless frames, picking up the complete game effort with six strikeouts.
Haverford will play its first game in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, March 21 at the Maplezone Sports Institute complex. First pitch against Eastern is slated for 3:00 p.m.