Box Score

CARLISLE, Pa. – Freshman second baseman Mike Backus (Piscataway, N.J./Immaculata) went 3-for-4 and hit his first career home run to help Gettysburg to an 11-3 win against Dickinson in Centennial Conference (CC) action on Friday afternoon at MacPhail Field. Backus scored twice and knocked in a pair of runs to help the Bullets sweep the season series from the Red Devils for the fifth time in the last seven years and extend their current winning streak to five straight.

Gettysburg (13-2, 2-0 CC) junior first baseman Matt Stillitano (Ewing, N.J./The Hun School of Princeton) was 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles, three RBI and two runs scored. Junior catcher Michael Donohue (Livingston, N.J./Livingston) added a 2-for-3 performance with two runs and an RBI, and senior right fielder Chase Straub (Perkasie, Pa./Pennridge) went 2-for-4 and crossed the plate twice in a 12-hit attack.

On the mound, sophomore right-hander Will Kleva (Ocean City, N.J./Ocean City) went eight innings, allowing three runs on nine hits to pick up his third win of the season.

Dickinson (4-13, 0-2 CC) was again led by senior left fielder Luke Volker, who was 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored. He was 3-for-4 with an RBI in Tuesday's game at Kirchhoff Field, a 6-2 Bullet win.
The Bullets went three-up-three-down in the top of the first, but they would not be retired in order again until the ninth, by which point the ballgame was well in hand.

Donohue and Stillitano started the second inning off with back-to-back doubles, and it would be the first of two innings in which Gettysburg sent nine men to the plate on the afternoon. Sophomore shortstop Sam Stabert (Wynnewood, Pa./Lower Merion) followed Stillitano's RBI double with a sacrifice bunt that put Stillitano on third. He came home on an RBI groundout by senior left fielder Mark Campo (Arendtsville, Pa./Biglerville). Campo had a pair of RBI on the day despite being 0-for-3. Straub followed with a bases-empty single, and Backus was hit by a pitch. They both moved up on a wild pitch, and junior center fielder Sean McGee (Mamaroneck, N.Y./Mamaroneck) walked to load the bases. A single by senior third baseman Ben Carey (Colchester, Conn./St. Bernard) plated two more and capped a four-run inning.

The Red Devils got one back in the bottom of the inning when Volker led off with a double and scored on an RBI groundout by junior third baseman Dustin Cohen.

After a scoreless third, Gettysburg exploded for two each in the fourth and fifth innings and three in the sixth. Dickinson only mustered a pair of single runs in the fourth and fifth.

Straub led off the top of the fourth inning with an infield single, and Backus drilled his first career round-tripper to bring him home. For the day, the bottom two spots in Gettysburg's lineup torched Red Devil pitching, going 5-for-9 with two RBI and four runs scored.

In the next frame, Donohue drew a leadoff walk and scored all the way from first on Stillitano's second two-bagger of the day. Two batters later, Stillitano was driven in on a sacrifice fly by Campo.
The Bullets put the game away in the top of the sixth inning with the aid of two Dickinson errors. Donohue and Stillitano drew consecutive bases-loaded walks, and Stabert drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.

Kleva was able to pitch out of trouble all day long. He only had a single 1-2-3 inning before the seventh, but retired the last eight batters he faced. After the eighth inning, he gave way to freshman Michael Sweeney (Bethesda, Md./St. Anselm's Abbey School), who threw a perfect ninth in his second appearance of the season.

Gettysburg will be back in action on Saturday when the Bullets play host to Washington (Md.) in a CC doubleheader at Kirchhoff Field. The first pitch is slated for 12:30 p.m.