Box Score

LANCASTER, Pa. – Freshman Ryan Taylor twirled a six-hit shutout and struck out eight batters, leading the Gettysburg College baseball team to a 4-0 win at Franklin & Marshall College on a windy and cold Friday afternoon Centennial Conference tilt.

Sophomore first baseman Clint O'Brien ripped a pair of doubles and finished 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs for the Bullets (11-12, 3-6 CC). He scored what held up as the game-winning run in the seventh on a single from sophomore outfielder Drew Roy, then drove in a pair of insurance runs in the ninth.

Taylor (3-3) threw Gettysburg's first Centennial Conference shutout since Brian Spicer tied a school record with 17 strikeouts in a 4-0 win over Johns Hopkins University on April 21, 2006. Taylor was also the first Bullet to blank a Centennial Conference opponent on the road since Dan Armstrong threw a seven-inning, one-hitter in a 13-0 victory at Swarthmore College on March 27, 2004.

John Gray (2-2) struck out seven and allowed only one run in seven innings for F&M (11-11-1, 6-4 CC) but yielded the go-ahead run in the seventh.

Taylor, who walked just one and allowed a runner to reach third only once, was nearly perfect in the early going, retiring 10 of the first 11 batters. He faced his stiffest test in the fifth, when Russell Tischler led off with a double and was sacrificed to third. But Taylor induced a groundout to second before getting a strikeout to end the inning.

Gray was equally effective early on and did not give up a hit until the fourth, when freshman designated hitter Pat Cody cracked a one-out single and stole second. But Gray put out the threat with a pair of groundouts.

The Bullets were also unable to capitalize in the fifth, when they left runners on second and third with one out. But in the seventh, O'Brien got things going with a leadoff double, then was sacrificed to third by senior catcher Craig Barrows. Roy followed up with an RBI-single through the right side to make it 1-0.

In the bottom of the inning, Jason Anderson singled with one out, but Gettysburg kept the shutout intact by turning a 5-4-3 double play.

Mike Ham came on in relief in the eighth and was touched for three runs in the ninth. After Cody led off with a single, junior first baseman Matt Karis doubled to put runners on second and third. O'Brien then broke it open with a two-run double to left, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a sac fly from Barrows.

Cody finished 2-for-4 for Gettysburg while Bill Murray went 2-for-4 for F&M.

The Bullets return to Centennial Conference action on Saturday, when they host Swarthmore College in a doubleheader starting at 12:30 p.m.