HAVERFORD, Pa. – Sophomore Joe Giovinco (Stirling, N.J./Seton Hall Prep) belted a go-ahead, three-run homer in the seventh inning, lifting the Gettysburg College baseball team to a 6-4 victory in the opener of a Centennial Conference (CC) doubleheader at Haverford on Saturday.
 
The Fords came back to win the nightcap 11-4 in seven innings in a game that was shortened due to thunderstorms. Freshman Sean Murphy (Westfield, Mass./Westfield) went deep in the nightcap with a two-run shot in the fifth for the Bullets.
 
Both teams were playing their final Centennial Conference games of the year. Haverford (17-19, 9-9 CC) also played its final games of the season after having its CC playoff hopes ended by Gettysburg's game one victory.
 
Giovinco finished 4-for-8 for the day. He also hit safely in the second game to stretch his hitting streak to 12 games – the longest by a Bullet this season.
 
The game one victory marked win No. 598 for Gettysburg head coach John Campo.
 
In the opener, the Bullets (12-22, 6-12 CC) trailed 4-1 after six innings of play before going to work. Freshman Kobi Wolf (Westfield, N.J./Westfield) led off the seventh with a walk before senior Chuck Probst (North Bend, Pa./Bucktail) followed up with a single. Freshman Matt Szczesny (Schwenksville, Pa./Perkiomen Valley) scored Wolf with an RBI-single before Giovinco stepped in and launched his first career home run, pulling the ball over the rightfield fence to put the Bullets up 5-4. Gettysburg added an insurance run in the eighth, when senior Logan Sneed (Newtown, Pa./Germantown Academy) led off with a single before eventually scoring on a wild pitch.
 
In the meantime, freshman reliever Myles Burbank (Rye, N.Y./Rye) blanked the Fords over the final 3 2/3 innings while earning his first collegiate win. Burbank (1-2) retired 10 of the 12 batters he faced, allowing only a pair of singles. He struck out two and did not walk a batter.
 
Gettysburg struck first in the opener, when Giovinco smacked an RBI-single in the third. But Haverford came back with two in the bottom of the inning with a two-run homer off freshman starter Dan Ball (Bernardsville, N.J./Bernards). The Fords added single runs in the fourth and sixth while going deep again in the fourth.
 
Giovinco finished 2-for-5 with four RBIs for the Bullets, whose Nos. 1-5 batters accounted for all nine of Gettysburg's hits. Probst, Szczesny, and Murphy also knocked two hits each.
 
The Bullets jumped to an early 2-0 lead in the second game, scoring twice in the top of the first. Probst led off with a singled and later scored on an error before sophomore Ryan Augustus (Freehold, N.J./Princeton Day School) capped the inning with an RBI-single.
 
Haverford answered with a run in the bottom of the inning versus junior starter Will Wortmann (Bedford, N.Y./Fox Lane), then went ahead with a four-run second. The Fords broke it open in the fourth with another four-spot, extending their advantage to 9-2.
 
Gettysburg cut into the deficit in the fifth, when Murphy blasted an opposite-field, two-run shot to right for his career homer. But the Bullets were shut out over their last two innings, and Haverford added to their lead with their second homer of the game – a two-run blast in the sixth that set the final score. The game was called with two outs and a runner on base in the bottom of the seventh.
 
Giovinco finished 2-for-3 with a pair of runs scored in the second game while Augustus went 2-for-4.
 
Wortmann (1-2) left the game in the second inning and was charged with the loss.
 
Gettysburg closes out the season with a pair of non-conference home games. The Bullets host Juniata on Tuesday and Messiah on Wednesday, with both games starting at 3:30 p.m.