Box Score

COCOA, Fla. – Despite rapping a season-high 11 hits, the Gettysburg College baseball team dropped an 8-3 decision to undefeated SUNY Oneonta on Tuesday during the third day of the team's Spring Break trip to Florida. The loss drops the Bullets to 1-4 on their southern swing.

Sophomore Cam Riera (Medway, Mass./Medway) led Gettysburg (1-6) at the plate, going went 3-for-4, while junior Mike Backus (Piscataway, N.J./Immaculata) was 2-for-4 with an RBI-double.

Gettysburg pushed across an unearned run in the top of the first to take a 1-0 lead, but the Red Dragons (5-0) answered with five straight runs from the second through the fifth against junior Michael Sweeney (Bethesda, Md./St. Anselm's Abbey School). Oneonta tied it in the second, getting a pair of singles sandwiched around a sacrifice bunt. Then in the third, the leadoff batter reached on an error, and it would lead to a pair of unearned runs crossing the plate on a two-out single. The Dragons added two more runs with a three-hit fifth to forge a 5-1 lead.

In the meantime, Dragon starter Jeffrey Carter blanked the Bullets from the second through the sixth, although the Bullets had a runner on base every inning and stranded two runners in both the third and the fifth.

Gettysburg finally got to Carter in the seventh, when senior Sam Stabert (Wynnewood, Pa./Lower Merion) ripped a one-out single and scored three batters later when Backus drilled a double off reliever Christopher Smith, cutting the lead to 5-2.

Oneonta broke it open with a three-run seventh against junior reliever John Antrim-Cashin (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y./Fordham Prep). The leadoff batter singled and stole second before scoring on another single. After a walk and a wild pitch put runners on second and third, No. 9 hitter Kevin Smith lifted a sacrifice fly to right, and a throwing error allowed another run to score from second. After another walk, freshman Bobby Martz (Lower Gwynedd, Pa./Chestnut Hill Academy) prevented further damage, getting a pair of flyouts to end the inning.

The Bullets scored their final run in the eighth, when junior Kevin Langhauser (Basking Ridge, N.J./Ridge) tripled and scored on a single from junior Craig Barrows (Whippany, N.J./Whippany Park).

Sweeney (0-1) pitched 5 2/3 innings, striking out two and walking one. Only three of his five runs were earned. Martz hit the leadoff batter in the eighth but retired the next three hitters to wrap up a scoreless 1 2/3-inning outing in his collegiate debut.

Carter earned the win for Oneonta, yielding only two runs (one earned) on eight hits in 6 2/3 innings. He fanned three and walked none. Smith worked the final 2 1/3 and allowed only one run on three hits.

Gettysburg takes a day off on Wednesday before returning to the diamond on Thursday, when it faces Penn State Brandywine in another nine-inning game starting at 10 a.m.