HAVERFORD, Pa. - The Haverford College baseball team (12-11, 3-1 CC) recorded a nearly flawless outing on Friday afternoon at Kannerstein Field, grabbing a 6-0 win over the Shoremen of Washington College (14-11, 0-4 CC) behind a stellar turn on the mound from a pair of talented flamethrowers.
Sophomore Mike Rabayda (3-3) and junior Josh Fuller combined to take a no-hitter into the ninth inning, with Cael Magill lashing a clean single to right field to lead off the final frame, dashing Haverford's hopes of the first combined no-hitter in program history and the first overall since Adam Huron hurled seven no-hit frames against Hiram on March 8, 2004.
Rabayda was brilliant from the start, as he worked around a one-out walk in the first frame before setting down the next 15 batters he faced. The dominating stretch included eight of his nine total strikeouts in the contest. Impressively, all nine strikeouts were swinging strikeouts, as Rabayda consistently missed bats as the Shoremen went back to the bench searching for answers.
The top of the lineup did damage to support the excellent pitching, with Harry Genth poking a single through the left side to begin the bottom of the first. Genth then stole second, and eventually scored on an RBI groundout from Luke Smith. Genth walked ahead of Zach Buck in the third, as Buck delivered a towering two-run homer to right center for a 3-0 Haverford advantage. The blast was Buck's second of the season.
Fuller took over in the seventh, and instantly kept up the momentum with a pair of strikeouts, working around a leadoff walk. Fuller reprised that role in the eighth, with CJ Gilmer and Mike Bukowski each striking out swinging, stranding Brandon Hoffman, who walked with one out, at second base.
An insurance run on a safety squeeze bunt from Smith in the eighth gave the Fords a 4-0 lead entering the final frame, and Haverford added a pair in the ninth on an RBI single from Rosman and a Genth double into the left-center field gap.
Magill's lead-off single to end the no-hit bid was quickly erased as Baker rapped into a double play grounder that Genth made an acrobatic play to corral. A pair of two-out singles went fruitless for the visitors as pinch hitter Ben Ruvo lined out to a leaping Genth to end the contest as the Fords etched the final out of the shutout. Fuller earned his second save of the season by virtue of the three scoreless innings.
Genth, Buck, Becker, and Zach Crampton all had two-hit days. Washington College combined to use six pitchers in a losing effort, with Anthony Sofran (3-1) keeping his team in the contest with six five-hit, three-run innings.
Haverford now returns to action on Sunday, April 10 as the Fords travel to McDaniel for a doubleheader. The first contest is slated to begin at noon in Westminster, Maryland.