Hopkins Breaks Bullets Baseball Winning Streak
By Kelly Keith, Staff Writer
A lot has happened to Gettysburg baseball this past week. On Friday Johns Hopkins snapped Gettysburg’s 23 game winning streak, and the Bullets clinched the number one seed in the Centennial Conference after defeating McDaniel, establishing Kirchhoff Field as the official site for the 2014 Centennial Conference Championship.
The Bullets faced Johns Hopkins for the first time this season on Thursday, home at Kirchhoff Field. Defeating the Blue Jays 4-3, Gettysburg baseball faced one of their most intense games yet this season. Junior Eric Hungerford tossed eight solid innings allowing three runs and just four hits. Sophomore Luke Lawrence came in for the 9th inning allowing no runs, keeping the score tied 3-3.
During the last inning of the game Senior Patrick O’Grady hit a walk off single to win the game. The Bullets dug out stormed the field chanting O’Grady through the outfield. Every person present at Kirchhoff Field could feel the magnitude of the team’s excitement.
Junior Eric Hungerford talks about the tight game. “Last week against Hopkins was a very solid win. When we were down I knew that if I kept the game close we could make a comeback and we did. Personally, I didn’t have any of my pitches working except my fastball and I struggled with control, which cost me a few runs. But it was exciting to win in front of a good home crowd.”
The following day Gettysburg baseball headed to Baltimore to play Johns Hopkins. It was an intense game, neither team scored until the fifth inning when senior Drew Felsenthal let up a two run homerun to the Blue Jays. Unfortunately, the Bullets were unable to make a comeback, the game ended 2-0 Johns Hopkins. This was the team’s first loss in 23 games. Gettysburg totaled only three hits the entire game, two of them coming from senior Tommy LeNoir.
On Saturday the Bullets split a double header with Muhlenberg at home, Kirchhoff Field. Gettysburg lost the opener 12-4, ending the team’s 20-game home winning streak, but rallied in the nightcap to win 12-7, securing the Bullets a spot in the 2014 Centennial Conference playoffs.
In the first game senior Al Posch finished 2-for-4, executing his 200th college career hit. While senior Nate Simon went 2-for-4 with a double. Senior Joe Saladino closed out the game on the mound for the Bullets and tossed two scoreless innings. First-year Rich Power faced his first career loss after allowing three runs on six hits and two walks in three innings.
Senior Chris Yoda started on the mound in the second game of the day against Muhlenberg. Yoda allowed no runs in the first three innings but ran into trouble in the fourth, giving up five runs on six hits, Muhlenberg went up 5-1.
Gettysburg put up five runs in the fifth, included an RBI-single from senior Nate Simon, and a two-run single from junior Scott Zanghellini that put the Bullets back on top. Senior Ben Roessle added a sacrifice fly that pushed the lead to 7-5. Zanghellini had an amazing day at the plate in the second game, going 4-for-5 with four RBIs.
Sophomore Luke Lawrence tossed the last four innings of the nightcap and allowed just two runs, one earned, to gain the win for the Bullets. Lawrence talks about what the team did to come back from two big defeats to beat Muhlenberg.
“We could not let the two losses get us discouraged. We needed a win in the second game verses Muhlenberg, so we put the past games behind us and just focused on the game at hand. It was a big win over the second place team, and it further separated us as the conference leader.”
On Monday April 22nd the Bullets defeated McDaniel 8-3, sealing them as the number one spot in the conference. Senior Tommy LeNoir finished 4-for-5 with a double and a triple while junior Eric Hungerford tossed eight innings to earn the victory. Hungerford talks about what it means to the team to be placed first in the conference and be hosting playoffs home at Kirchhoff Field.
“It feels great to clinch the number one spot and host the tournament because we’ve put ourselves in the best possible position at this point in the season. However, we all know that we have not accomplished what we want to yet and it is all about winning the conference in a few weekends.”
Make sure to come support the Bullets this Friday as they face McDaniel home at Kirchhoff Field! Go Bullets!
