UNION, N.J. – The Haverford College baseball team opened its 2020 season with a pair of tough results. Playing No. 13 Kean in the season opener, the Fords fell by a 19-2 score. Coming back in a neutral site game against Susquehanna, the River Hawks came away with a 5-0 victory.

Andrew Johnson toed the mound for the Fords as the opening day starter in the matchup against nationally-ranked Kean. Johnson kept the Cougars in check early as he allowed just one run over the first three innings, but a three-run fourth inning closed the book on him. Kean did not record an extra-base hit in that inning, but did its damage with four singles and a fielder's choice.

Nevertheless, the high-powered Cougars offense really started to roll with six runs in the sixth and eight runs in the eighth. Kean concluded the contest with 18 hits. Lucas Greenbaum and first-year Justin McAllister were the most effective Fords out of the bullpen.

Despite scoring just two runs, Haverford did bang out nine hits in the opener as Zach Landry was the only Ford to finish with a multi-hit opener. Haverford scored its opening run of the game in the third to tie the game at 1-1 when Matt Sabitsky led off the inning with a single and stole both second and third before being driven in on Will Karp's RBI single. The Fords got their second run in the sixth as Grant Schwartz led off that frame with a double and came around to score on an RBI single from Ben Somorjai.

With a much lower scoring game two against Susquehanna, August Williams was called on to make his first career start. The Fords' first-year went four innings during his collegiate debut. Like his counterpart from the opening game, Williams also had allowed just one run through the first three innings before Susquehanna pushed three runs across in the fourth. The first four batters in that inning reached base to start the three-run rally.

Susquehanna added a sacrifice fly during the eighth inning but that early offense was more than enough for the River Hawks' pitchers as Tyson Thrush went six innings to pick up the win while Bobby Grigas notched his first save of the season with three innings of relief during the combined shutout. Will Karp tallied Haverford's lone hit of the second game with a single during the sixth inning. Josh Fuller and Ryan Giovenco provided solid innings out of the bullpen for Haverford. Fuller went 3.2 innings and allowed just one earned run in his Haverford debut while Giovenco walked just one batter over his 1.1 innings of work.

Baseball will be back on the road this coming Wednesday when the Fords travel to Scranton for a 5 p.m. first pitch. That will be Haverford's final game before traveling to Florida for the Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic during the week of spring break.