Devils Inch Past Bullets in Two Straight Nail-Biters
By Charlie Miller, Contributing Writer
Gettysburg dropped a pair of 5-4 games in home-away split vs. Dickinson College.
Despite a three-run fourth inning to erase a 3-0 deficit, Gettysburg baseball allowed two 7th inning runs and could not overcome the Dickinson nine on Wednesday, April 20th. They then traveled north to Carlisle on Friday, April 22nd and once again fell 5-4 at MacPhail Field despite junior J.R. McCloskey’s three-RBI effort. The Bullets fought a hard battle against the Red Devils but came up short in the season finale series against their rivals from the north.
The game at Kirchoff Field was moved from Tuesday to Wednesday April 20th due to weather, and Dickinson drew the first blood in the third inning with three runs off an error and a pair of doubles. The Bullets responded, sophomore David Preziuso driving in senior Matt Muir on a sacrifice fly in the fourth and junior Matthew Peipher firing up the crowd with a game-tying two-run triple that made it 3-3. The energy of the fans inspired the Bullets’ offense to string together quality at-bats and fight to the end.
The score stayed at three apiece until the visitor’s seventh, when a triple and sacrifice fly brought in two more runs to give the Devils a 5-3 advantage. Gettysburg hitting was able to get to a tough Dickinson pitching staff for another run in their half of the seventh but could not push another run across before the final out. Dickinson closed out a 5-4 win, improving to 16-14 on the year. Dickinson outhit the Bullets 7-5, with all five Gettysburg hits coming from different players.
Gettysburg starter sophomore Cole Wong pitched 4.2 innings of strong baseball, yielding only three unearned runs, a promising outlook for the Bullets’ future as they head into their last week of games before the Centennial Conference championships.
The Bullets then traveled to Carlisle to play the Devils in the rivalry’s season finale on Friday April 22nd.
Dickinson once again opened the scoring, taking a 2-0 lead in the first inning off the back of three Bullet errors and two hits. J.R. McCloskey started his big day in the next frame, however, his two-run single evening the score at two. The two teams then traded runs, the Bullets tying it at three with a Jack Pistner ’25 bases-loaded walk in the fifth. However, Dickinson put themselves ahead for good in the bottom of the fifth with two runs. Junior Preston Toothman was sent home on another RBI by McCloskey in the top of the eighth, but it was not enough to surmount the deficit.
The Bullets had a frustrating day at the plate with men on base, leaving ten runners on and stranding the potential tying run at third in the 8th. Dickinson retired the Bullets in order in the ninth to sweep the home-away split.
Gettysburg split a doubleheader against the Washington College Shoremen at home on Saturday April 23rd, and the Bullets will close out their regular season the week of April 24th with a home-away split against Franklin & Marshall on Tuesday and Friday and a doubleheader against Ursinus at home on Saturday.
