LANCASTER, Pa. – The Gettysburg College baseball team was unable to overcome two big early innings by Franklin & Marshall as they fell to the Diplomats 11-2 on Friday afternoon in Centennial Conference action.
 
The loss drops the Bullets to 16-20 overall and 7-9 in Centennial Conference action with two games left in the regular season. Gettysburg must sweep Ursinus tomorrow afternoon and get some help to clinch a spot in the Centennial Tournament. Meanwhile, the Diplomats improved to 22-13 overall and 13-3 in conference action which keeps them tied with Swarthmore in the battle for the number one seed in the Centennial Tournament. 
 
Senior Matt Muir (South Easton, Mass./Oliver Ames) roped a one-out double to right field and came around to score to give the Bullets a 1-0 lead on a single by senior Andrew Decker (Baltimore, Md./Towson). Decker, however, was subsequently thrown out at second base to end the inning trying to leg his single into a double.
 
The Diplomats powered ahead in the bottom of the second inning by scoring four runs on four hits and one error to go up 4-1. Four-straight batters reached base for F&M after the first out was recorded with a runner on first base. Gettysburg put runners on second and third base with two outs in the top of the third inning before a groundout to third ended the threat. The Diplomats added three more runs in the bottom half of the third inning to extend their lead out to 7-1.
 
Gettysburg cut into the deficit in the top half of the fourth inning after a pair of two-out doubles from sophomore David Preziuso (Middletown, Del./Caravel Academy) and junior Preston Toothman (Orlando, Fla./William R. Boone). Unfortunately for the Bullets, the Diplomats answered with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning to take back a six-run advantage at 8-2. F&M then tacked on a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth off a pair of hits, extending their advantage to 10-2.
 
The Bullets next best opportunity to chop into the deficit came in the top of the seventh when they loaded the bases with two outs, but a fly out ended a possibility of a two-out rally. F&M added one more run in the bottom of the eighth inning to cap their day at 11-2.
 
Muir paced the Bullets offense by going 3-of-5 from the plate while Decker and Toothman each went 2-of-4 with one RBI. Preziuso went 2-of-4 from the dish as well behind a pair of doubles. Senior Myles Burbak (Rye, N.Y./Rye) suffered the loss for the Bullets after allowing four earned runs on five hits with one walk after tossing the first 1.1 innings. Freshman Ian Gannaway (Westfield, N.J./Westfield) tossed five innings out of the bullpen for Gettysburg and allowed three earned runs on six hits with three strikeouts along with two walks.
Charlie Wright went the distance for the Diplomats as he earned the complete game win behind allowing just two earned runs on 11 hits with a pair of strikeouts.
 
The Bullets will wrap up their regular season tomorrow, April 30th by hosting Ursinus for senior day with game one starting at 12 p.m. from Kirchhoff Field.