Box Score
LANCASTER, Pa. – Shea Moriarty hit a walk-off, two-out single in bottom of the 12th to cap a 4-for-6 day at the plate and lift host Franklin & Marshall to a come-from-behind win over Gettysburg in a Centennial Conference baseball game Friday afternoon.
The Bullets (14-19, 6-8 CC) led the game 3-2 heading into the bottom of the ninth, when F&M (17-10, 12-2 CC) pushed across an unearned run. Diplomat reliever Mike Duranti (4-0) blanked Gettysburg on two hits over the final five innings, allowing only an infield single in the three extra frames.
Gettysburg has now lost its last six games, all Centennial Conference affairs. The Bullets now find themselves in a three-way tie with McDaniel and Ursinus for fifth place in the conference standings, trailing Muhlenberg by two games for the fourth and final playoff spot.
F&M won for the 13th time in its last 14 outings and ran its winning streak to eight.
It was the 10th one-run game of the season for Gettysburg, which is now 6-4 in such affairs. The Bullets fell to 3-2 in extra-inning games this year.
Senior Mike Donohue (Livingston, N.J./Livingston) led the Bullets at the plate, going 2-for-4 with a double. Junior Will Kleva (Ocean City, N.J./Ocean City) tossed eight sharp innings for Gettysburg but came away with a no-decision. He held the Diplomats to two runs on seven hits in his longest outing of the season. Freshman Matt Karis (Southborough, Mass./Noble & Greenough School) suffered the loss in relief, but he yielded only one run on three hits over 3 1/3 innings, helping the Bullets hold the Dips to their lowest run total over their last eight games.
Mark Minutaglio was 3-for-5 for F&M. He tied the game with a one-out triple in the ninth, and he scored the winning run after singling to lead off the 12th.
The game featured a combined 18 hits, including 14 through the first nine innings, and was a vast change from F&M's 18-4 win over the Bullets on Tuesday. The two teams combined for 35 hits, with 26 coming off Diplomat bats, in that game.
The Dips went ahead 1-0 in the first, when Moriarty ripped a one-out triple and scored on a groundout. But Gettysburg came back with three unanswered runs.
Donohue led off the second with a single, was sacrificed to second by junior Sam Stabert (Wynnewood, Pa./Lower Merion), and scored on a two-out single to right from junior Andrew Burton (McLean, Va./McLean). Then in the third, freshman Chris Simard (Lexington, Mass./Belmont Hill) reached on an error before scoring on a two-out triple to right-center from sophomore Kevin Langhauser (Basking Ridge, N.J./Ridge). Donhue knocked in Langauser with a double to center, giving the Bullets a 3-1 lead.
F&M threatened with a four-hit fifth, but Kleva held the Dips to one run in the inning and got out of a bases-loaded jam. Minutaglio led off with a single and went to third on an errant pickoff throw, then scored on an infield single. The bags were full when F&M added two more singles, but Kleva induced cleanup hitter Patrick O'Reilly into an inning-ending flyout.
Kleva blanked F&M over the final three innings, but Diplomat starter Matthew Metsch also threw well late in the game, shutting out the Bullets over his final four innings.
Sophomore Michael Sweeney (Bethesda, Md./St. Anselm's Abbey School) came on in relief in the bottom of the ninth, and Rich Gallugi led off by reaching on an error. He was sacrificed to second by Bill Murray before scoring on Minutaglio's game-tying hit down the rightfield line. However, with the winning run 90 feet from scoring, Karis (2-3) came up big out of the pen, getting a flyout and groundout to send it to extra innings.
Gettysburg's best chance to go back in front came in the 10th, when Langhauser stood on second with one out after working a leadoff walk and stealing second. But Duranti got out of it with a strikeout and groundout.
In the 12th, Minutaglio singled through the left side and was sacrificed to second by Dan Farnsworth. After Gordon Pellegrini was intentionally walked, both runners moved up a bag after a groundout before Moriarty's big hit.
Gettysburg returns to action on Saturday, when it hosts Swarthmore College on Senior Day in a Centennial Conference doubleheader starting at 12:30 p.m.
