Bullets’ bats outswing senior day opponents; Baseball mows down Muhlenberg 9-8, 5-1 in double-header
By Sean Brower, Staff Writer
The Gettysburg baseball team currently ranks second in the Centennial Conference standings.
Photo Credit: Gettysburg Athletics
Sophomore pinch hitter Jack Seibert poked a walk off single, and the Gettysburg baseball team swept the Muhlenberg College Mules in a doubleheader April 23.
“I’m feeling great. Two solid wins today, always feels great to come out with two wins,” said Seibert.
With one out, and the Bullets down 8-4, seniors Steve Wright, Henry Klimowicz, Andy Kelley, and junior Connor Tom recorded four consecutive singles to make the score 8-6.
“This is the number one priority, baseball, getting into the playoffs right now, and it’s pretty easy to focus on a goal that we’ve been working [towards] for four years, and we really hope we can close it out and get ourselves into the playoffs and make a run,” said Klimowicz.
Klimowicz went a combined 6-for-8 with three RBI’s and two runs scored.
The Bullets focused on the playoff goal during their uprising.
Going into the top of the sixth, Gettysburg led 3-1. With one out, the Mules teed off against junior Rich Power, sending 11 men to the plate.
With the score now 4-3, first year Will Wortmann relieved Power.
But he could not stop the bleeding, allowing three more runs to cross. First year Jonny Bray then relieved Wortmann and helped first year second baseman Matt Glubiak ground a double play.
Another player stood out before the rally.
Sophomore Chuck Probst, benched for the previous three weeks with an injured wrist, was added back into the batting order and was called in to replace the injured sophomore Logan Sneed at third.
“I just had to take it one at-bat at a time. My first AB, [I] kind of struggled picking up the ball. But after that, I was back in the flow of things,” said Probst.
Probst went a combined 3-for-8, including two doubles and three runs scored.
In the bottom of the ninth, with the score 8-6, seniors Andrew Hourigan and Shawn Moffitt both reached to tie the game.
Seibert then stepped to the plate to put the finishing touch on an exhilarating bottom of the ninth.
“Andy Kelley told me to just look for something that I can hit, and hit it hard” said Seibert. “I got a pitch middle-out and I was able to pull it to left, and Andrew was able to score from second.”
The advice paid off, sending their teammates storming onto the field in a wild celebration.
The Bullets then entered Game two with the strong mentality from Game one.
Junior Chase Stopyra tossed 5 1/3 innings with one run (unearned) ball, striking out four.
The Bullets supported him with single runs in each of the first four innings.
Hourigan led the offense in Game two, going 3-for-4, with two runs scored.
“I was just trying to be aggressive early in the count, looking for some good fastballs to hit, and fortunately enough, I was able to get a couple of good fastballs, put the bat on the ball, and hit the ball hard somewhere,” said Hourigan, who went a combined 4-for-9 on the day, with three runs scored, including the game 1 winner.
Junior Jonathan Lucido relieved Stopyra and fired 3 2/3 scoreless innings, striking out four to earn his first career save.
“It was two big wins today over Muhlenberg. I think we’re in a little bit of a better position to make the playoffs in the Centennial Conference. So it was definitely two good wins today,” said Hourigan.
The Bullets will have their final home game of the 2016 season Friday, April 29 at 3:30PM against the McDaniel College Green Terrors.
