Box Score
GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Sophomore Mike Backus (Piscataway, N.J./Immaculata) went 4-for-4, but the Gettysburg College baseball team surrendered 18 hits to an explosive Villa Julie team and dropped a 14-5 non-conference decision in the Bullets' home finale Tuesday afternoon at a sunny Kirchhoff Field.
Villa Julie (21-18-1) entered the game hitting .352 with 29 home runs and added to those numbers, ripping nine extra-base hits, including a pair of home runs.
Backus, who rapped four singles, set his season-high for hits. He had a chance to tie the single-game school record of five hits that he currently shares when he came to the plate in the ninth, but he drew a walk.
Mustang No. 5 hitter George Papuchis led his team at the plate, going 3-for-5 with two doubles, a home run, three runs scored, and six RBIs. Leadoff hitter Kyle Van Beek and No. 8 hitter George Tarlow each went 3-for-5 as well while No. 2 hitter Jimmy Smith blasted a mammoth three-run homer and scored three runs.
Defensively, Villa Julie helped itself by turning four inning-ending double plays.
Gettysburg (16-20), which finished the season 6-8 at Kirchhoff Field, also received two hits apiece from senior Matt Stillitano (Ewing, N.J./The Hun School of Princeton) and freshman Cam Riera (Medway, Mass./Medway). Junior Scott Vladyka (Stanhope, N.J./Lenape Valley Regional) reached on an infield single in the seventh to stretch his hitting streak to 13.
Junior Jeff McAndrew (Medford, N.J./Shawnee) tossed a stellar 2 2/3 innings of shutout relief, retiring eight of the nine batters he faced while striking out five. His only blemish was a leadoff single in the ninth.
Freshman Matt Karis (Southborough, Mass./Noble & Greenough School) started on the mound for Gettysburg and was charged with the loss. Karis (2-3) went 3 2/3 innings, allowing four runs (one earned) on eight hits while striking out one. Sophomore John Antrim-Cashin (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y./Fordham Prep) added four strikeouts over 2 2/3 for the Bullets, who finished with 10 K's – their highest total since the 2006 season.
Johnny Jackson (5-2) picked up the win for Villa Julie, working five innings while yielding only one run on five hits.
The Mustangs never trailed after plating three unearned runs in the first. A one-out error led to a two-out, two-run double from Papuchis and a RBI-single from Griffin Stewart one batter later.
Villa Julie added a run in the fourth before scoring three more during a four-hit fifth, pushing their lead to 7-0. The Bullets got on the scoreboard on a Chris Simard (Lexington, Mass./Belmont Hill) sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning, but the Mustangs answered with a three-run Papuchis homer to left in the sixth, making it 10-1.
Stillitano singled up the middle to drive in a run in the bottom of the inning, but Villa Julie continued to pull away in the seventh, getting four runs on three hits, capped by Smith's towering shot that left the park just to the left of the 400 sign in straightaway center as the visitors went ahead 14-2.
The Bullets added one run on two hits in the seventh, then scored twice in the ninth to set the final score.
Gettysburg returns to action on Wednesday, when it visits Catholic University at 4 p.m. in a non-conference affair.
