Box Score

GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Senior Austin Davis (New York, N.Y./Riverdale Country School) finished 4-for-6 with three runs and the 22nd-ranked Gettysburg College baseball team held off a late rally to defeat McDaniel College 6-4 in its Centennial Conference (CC) regular-season finale and a makeup game Sunday afternoon at Kirchhoff Field.
 
With the victory, the Bullets (30-6, 15-3 CC) reach 30 wins for the second year in a row while tying the single-season program record for wins set a year ago.
 
Gettysburg, which on Tuesday clinched the No. 1 seed in the Centennial Conference playoffs and the right to host the conference tournament, will host Johns Hopkins University in a first-round game on Thursday at a time to be announced. Second-seeded Haverford College will host third-seeded Muhlenberg College in the other first-round game on Thursday before the remainder of the tournament will be held at Gettysburg College Saturday and next Sunday.
 
Senior Al Posch (Hopedale, Mass./Hopedale) went 3-for-5 for Gettysburg, which eliminated McDaniel (15-18, 9-9 CC) from conference playoff contention. Senior Chris Yoda (Wall, N.J./Wall) threw 4 2/3 innings to earn the win in relief before classmate Patrick O'Grady (Floral Park, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy) came on to get the final out to pick up a save. O'Grady, the team's starting centerfielder, also broke the school record for career games played (151) one day after setting the Gettysburg mark for career game started (150).
 
Junior Eric Hungerford (New Preston, Conn./Shepaug Valley) pitched the first four innings for Gettysburg and allowed just two hits and no runs to come away with a no-decision, leaving the game after exceeding his pitch count.
 
Marty Windisch finished 3-for-5 for McDaniel.
 
The Bullets led 6-2 heading into the top of the ninth, when the Green Terror pushed across a run on three singles versus Yoda. With two outs and runners on first and second, O'Grady moved from center to the mound and walked Marshall Betts to load the bases. An infield error made it a 6-4 game before O'Grady induced Joe Fiore to line out to sophomore Shawn Moffitt (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown East), who had just entered the game in center, to nail down his second save of the year.
 
Gettysburg struck early when Davis led off with one of his two infield singles against starter Michael Casper before eventually scoring on a single by senior Nate Simon (Gwynedd Valley, Pa./Abington Friends School), which tied the single-season school record of 44 RBIs set by Andrew Sheely '88 in 1988.
 
Hungerford, in the meantime, held the Terror in check for the second time in six days. After yielding just two runs over eight innings in Gettysburg's victory this past Tuesday, he did allow any of his four baserunners to reach second on Sunday.
 
The Bullets extended their lead to 6-0 when they scored five runs from the fourth through the sixth. Junior Cory Karagjozi (Robbinsville, N.J./Robbinsville) and Posch each stroked RBI-singles in the fourth to make it 3-0 before the Orange and Blue put up another two-spot in the fifth. Sophomore Ben Langey (Cazenovia, N.Y./Cazenovia) lofted the first of his two sacrifice flies before Posch drove in a run with an infield single to push the hosts' advantage to 5-0 and chase Casper from the game.
 
Langey capped Gettysburg's scoring in the sixth with his second sac fly that made it a 6-0 game.
 
Yoda came on in the fifth and after walking his first batter induced a 6-4-3 double play, starting a string of seven consecutive batters retired. He hit a batter with outs in the seventh but escaped with a groundout.
 
The Green Terror finally broke through with two runs on four singles and a sacrifice fly in the eighth, when Yoda avoided further damage by getting an inning-ending strikeout with runners on second and third.
 
Yoda (4-1) yielded four runs on seven hits while striking out two. Casper (2-2) gave up five runs on 11 hits and two walks.
 
Gettysburg concludes the regular season with a pair of non-conference games, hosting Penn State-York on Monday at 3:30 p.m. before visiting Messiah College on Tuesday at 4 p.m.