Box Score

GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Junior Matt Karis threw a 12-hit complete game and Gettysburg used a fast start to beat York (Pa.) College 7-5 in a non-conference baseball game and the Bullets home opener at a sunny Kirchhoff Field Thursday afternoon.

Gettysburg (7-4), which has won its last six games, never trailed after scoring five runs against two different York pitchers over the first two innings.

Senior Mike Backus led the Bullets at the plate, going 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs. With 107 career RBIs, he is now tied for third in school history and just three shy of the school record held by Joe Bonyai '07.

Rick Shumway and Mike Connolly led the Spartans (5-7) with three hits apiece while Kyle Cook smacked a pair of doubles. CT Stanley also had two hits for York.

The Bullets went ahead 3-0 in the bottom of the first against starter KC Beshore, doing all of their damage with two outs. Backus got things started with a double before Karis reached on an infield single. Sophomore Drew Roy then clouted a two-run triple to right before scoring on an error.

Gettysburg also used some two-out lightning to score a pair of runs in the second, when Backus drilled a single through the left side to make it 5-0.

After York scratched out a run in the third, the Bullets pushed their advantage to 7-1 after scoring twice in the fourth without a hit. Junior Cam Riera led off with a walk before Backus was hit with a pitch. Both runners moved up on a passed ball before Karis drove in a run with a groundout. After Roy drew a walk, Backus scored Gettysburg's final run on a wild pitch.

The Spartans cut into the deficit with an unearned run in the fifth and a two-run, four-hit seventh to make it 7-4. After leaving runners on first and second in the seventh and the eighth, York made it a two-run game on a one-out, RBI-single from Stanley in the ninth. But Karis ended the game with a 6-4-3 double play one batter later.

Karis (2-1) struck out six en route to his sixth career complete game. Beshore (0-2) suffered the loss.

York's first three pitchers yielded all of the Bullets seven runs before Tom Moran came on to blank Gettysburg on one hit over three innings. Brandon Ullom tossed a scoreless ninth for the Spartans.

Gettysburg continues its three-day, four-game homestand on Friday, when it hosts Penn State-York in another single nine-inning game starting at 3:30 p.m.