McDaniel Bats Derail Bullets’ Win Streak
Ken Spadaccini ’23 pitching for the Bullets (Photo Luca España/The Gettysburgian)
By Charlie Miller, Contributing Writer
The McDaniel Green Terror avenged their April 5th 8-6 loss at the hands of Gettysburg by defeating the Bullets 11-5 on April 8th at Kirchoff field. The Terror used big third and fifth innings to outmuscle Gettysburg after facing an early 2-0 deficit. Despite three-hit efforts from juniors Preston Toothman and Kyle Miller, McDaniel hit the Bullets’ pitching hard to end the home team’s three-game win streak.
The Bullets looked strong early, two shutout innings from starting pitcher Connor Stewart ’25 complimenting junior Tristan Neels’ RBI double and junior JR McCloskey’s RBI groundout. However, in the top of the third, doom set in for Gettysburg, as three straight walks led to a two-run single to tie things up for McDaniel. An RBI double down the left field line later in the inning gave the Green Terror a 4-2 advantage on the scoreboard.
Things stalled until the fifth, when a two-run single made it seven unanswered runs for the Green Terror. While the Bullets have had a good amount of offensive success this season, their leaky pitching staff has let them down, leading to their current .500 mark on the year. In the sixth, the Bullets showed some fight, stringing together a few quality at-bats with two outs that led to a Miller RBI infield single. The score was now 7-3, and the Bullets had continue battling back.
Miller found success against McDaniel earlier in the week in the Bullets’ 8-6 triumph, and he again was able to get to the Green Terror hurlers in Friday’s contest. He is second on the team with an .856 OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) and is one of eight Bullets to post at least a .300 batting average with substantial at bats through 26 games. Their team 7.35 ERA (earned run average) has been the Achilles heel, however, and it continued to show in this game.
Four more Green Terror runs crossed home plate in the eighth via a pair of two-run singles, making the score 11-3 in favor of McDaniel. The Green Terror had blown the game open at this point, but the Bullets did not give up. With men on second and third base in the bottom of the eighth, a throwing error by the Green Terror’s second baseman sent Toothman and Mark Seibert ’22 plate-ward, cutting the deficit to 11-5.
In relief of Stewart came a pair of juniors, Ken Spadaccini and Connor Sikora. Spadaccini twirled five frames, while Sikora finished the game with one strikeout over one and two thirds’ innings scoreless.
Removing the Green Terror’s two big innings (the third and fifth), the Bullets held the run advantage 5-4, but those two innings, helped by walks from Gettysburg pitching and timely hitting from McDaniel, were the difference. The Green Terror only outhit Gettysburg 13-12, and they committed two errors to the Bullets none. The teams were even in virtually every statistic except the run column, which is a very encouraging sign for Gettysburg as they hope to find their stride leading into the latter half of the season.
Following the loss against McDaniel, the Bullets split a weekend series in Swarthmore, taking a close one on Saturday 3-2, but again falling 11-5 to the Garnet later that day. Nonetheless, they have won four out of their first six conference games, and while they may not be one of the favorites in the Centennial Conference, they hope to make some noise down the stretch. The Bullets stand at 13-13 as of April 10th.
Junior shortstop Preston Toothman noted how the “whole team has been really hot with the bats as of late” and that he was able to find success against McDaniel by “sticking to our hitting approach as a team and attacking fastballs,” especially those in early counts. Gettysburg’s bats have indeed been heating up lately, and they hope to carry that offensive momentum further into conference play.
The Bullets continue conference play this week against mighty Johns Hopkins, facing off against the Blue Jays in a home-away split on April 12th and 15th (3:30 PM ET first pitch for both contests). This will be a good test for the Bullets as Gettysburg travels to Baltimore to meet the streaking Jays who have won six out of their last nine.
