Box Score

GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Gettysburg scored a run in all but two innings and the Bullets pulled away in the final two frames to beat Juniata College 14-5 in a non-conference baseball game Monday afternoon at Kirchhoff Field.

The Bullets (20-10) equaled a season-high with five straight victories and reached the 20-win mark for the second year in a row. It is the first time Gettysburg has won 20 games in consecutive seasons since the Bullets did it three years in a row from 1999-2001.

Gettysburg outhit Juniata 16-6, and all but one starter hit safely. Junior Al Posch (Hopedale, Mass./Hopedale) missed the cycle by a double, finishing 3-for-6 with a triple, home run, and five RBIs while pushing his hitting streak to 15 games. Classmate Austin Davis (New York, N.Y./Riverdale Country School) went 4-for-5 with four runs scored while senior Pat Cody (Chesapeake, Va./Great Bridge) finished 3-for-5 and extended his hitting streak to 18. Making his first collegiate start, freshman catcher Ben Langey (Cazenovia, N.Y./Cazenovia) went 2-for-3 with three runs.

Junior Joe Saladino (Merrick, N.Y./Calhoun) carried a one-hit shutout and a 6-0 lead into the seventh inning for Gettysburg and earned his first win of the season.

Joe Klusman finished 2-for-3 at the plate for the Eagles (8-20).

Davis doubled leading off the bottom of the first and went on to score on a Cody single to give the Bullets a 1-0 lead. The Bullets added another run on an RBI-single from junior Patrick O'Grady (Floral Park, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy) in the third against starter Joe Sforza (1-4) before opening up some breathing room with a three-run fourth against reliever Mario DeYulius. The Bullets sent all nine batters to the plate in the inning, which features two Juniata errors that resulted in a pair of unearned runs.

Posch blasted an RBI-triple in the sixth to put the Bullets up 6-0. In the meantime, Saladino (1-0) was in total command. After allowing a leadoff single to start the game, he settled in to retire 15 of the next 16 batters he would face, with the only baserunner coming via a passed ball on a strikeout. He issued back-to-back walks to start the sixth but settled in to get the last three outs of the inning.

Juniata finally broke through in the seventh. With one out, the Eagles stroked four straight hits, capped by a three-run double from Chase Dykstra to make it a 6-3 game and chase Saladino. Senior Brett Norton (Millwood, N.Y./Horace Greeley) came on to get the final two outs of the inning, though a groundout cut the deficit to 6-4.

Posch had the answer in the bottom of the inning, however, when he blasted a majestic three-run homer over the leftfield fence. It was Gettysburg's first homer of the year and Posch's first long ball as a Bullet.

Juniata tacked on a run in the eighth to make it 9-5 before the Bullets settled any doubt with five runs the bottom of the inning which included a two-run single from Langey.

Saladino ended up allowing four runs on five hits and pair of walks while striking out one over 6 1/3 innings. Sophomore Kyle Beldoch (Leonia, N.J./Leonia) came on to get the final two outs in the eighth before junior Rob Stalzer (Merrick, N.Y./Bellmore JFK), making his first appearance of the season, tossed a scoreless ninth.

Gettysburg returns to Centennial Conference action on Tuesday, when it visits conference-leading and fifth-ranked Johns Hopkins University at 3:30 p.m.