Game 1 Box Score  Game 2 Box Score

COCOA, Fla. – Sophomore Matt Karis (Southborough, Mass./Noble & Greenough School) threw a six-hit complete game victory in the opener as the Gettysburg College baseball team came away with a split against Richard Stockton College on the final day of its Spring Break trip to Florida Saturday afternoon.

Karis pitched Gettysburg (5-7) to a 6-3 victory in Game One, but Richard Stockton (3-2) rallied with a 5-3 win in the nightcap.

Sophomore Cam Riera (Medway, Mass./Medway) went 3-for-8 over the twinbill and hit .485 (16-for-33) for the trip.

The Bullets finished 5-5 during their southern excursion, winning four of their last five games.

In the opener, the Ospreys jumped to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, but Gettysburg erupted to score all of its runs in the bottom of the inning, during which it sent 11 batters to the plate against starter Scott Fisher. After the leadoff batter was retired, the next five Bullets reached base, with senior Scott Vladyka (Stanhope, N.J./Lenape Valley Regional) putting his team on the scoreboard with a two-run single. Later in the inning, junior Craig Barrows (Whippany, N.J./Whippany Park) ripped a two-out, two-run single, as did sophomore Chris Simard (Lexington, Mass./Belmont Hill) two batters later.

Both starting pitchers settled in after the first, with Fisher (1-1) blanking the Bullets over his last three innings. Reliever Bill Hauer added a pair of shutout innings to keep it close.

Karis (2-1), who worked his second straight complete-game win, tossed five straight shutout innings from the second through the sixth and retired 11 straight batters at one point. Richard Stockton rallied in the seventh, scoring a pair of runs on two hits, two walks, and a sacrifice fly and had the tying run at the plate, but Karis struck out the cleanup hitter to end the game. He finished with four strikeouts and four walks.

Riera and Barrows each smacked a pair of hits in the opener.

Gettysburg had another big first inning in the nightcap, scoring twice in the top of the frame to assume a 2-0 lead. Freshman Drew Roy (Needham, Mass./Needham) provided some excited when he clouted a two-out triple before stealing home. Karis then walked and scored on a double by Vladyka.

Stockton cut the lead in half with a run in the second, but a Riera double and an RBI-single from Karis made it 3-1 in the third. But the Ospreys rallied with five runs over the fourth and fifth, tying it up with a two-run, four-hit fourth before forging ahead with a two-hit, two-run fifth.

Senior starter Chris Liegel (Oak Ridge, N.J./Pope John XXIII) was lifted with two outs in the fifth and the Bullets trailing 5-3. Freshman Mike Odierna (Weston, Conn./Weston) come on in his collegiate debut and gave up a run-scoring single, but retired the final four batters he faced, picking up his first career strikeout in the sixth.

Liegel (0-2) was charged with all six runs and was tagged with the loss. Matt Hunt (1-0) spun a six-hit complete game for Richard Stockton, striking out six and walking one.

Gettysburg plays its home opener on Tuesday, when it takes on Penn State Harrisburg in a non-conference game starting at 3:30 p.m.