HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Ursinus College baseball team fell victim to a dialed-in pitcher in a 7-3 Centennial Conference loss at Haverford on Wednesday.
The Bears' high-octane offense was rendered ineffective by Fords starter Luke Duris, who struck out 10 and took a 1-hitter into the seventh inning. Meanwhile, Haverford (12-11, 5-2) scored runs in each of the first four innings to build a 6-1 advantage and give their hurler a big cushion with which to work.
Sophomore Tom Jacobs was one of the few to have success at the dish for Ursinus (12-11, 3-4). The catcher had two hits and drove in all three runs for the visitors, delivering an RBI single in the third and a two-run double in the ninth. Classmate Eric Gross scored two runs and stole a base for the Bears.
Haverford got right to work in the first, taking an early lead on a sacrifice fly by Luke Wallis.
Zach Landry, who finished 4-for-4 on the afternoon, led off the second with a solo home run, and a fielder's choice with the bases loaded brought another Ford home.
Gross manufactured the Bears' first run by reaching on an error, stealing second and taking third on a passed ball before scoring on Jacobs' base hit back up the middle.
Haverford, however, answered right back with a run in its half and went up 6-1 in the fourth thanks in part to an Ursinus error and an RBI bunt single by Harrison Burns.
Down 7-1 in the last inning, Ursinus put two on the board as senior Carter Usowski walked and Gross singled through the left side in front of Jacobs, who plated both with a gapper to right-center.
In addition to Landry's huge day, Owen Plambeck (3-for-4, two RBI), Will Karp (2-for-5, two runs, RBI), and Burns (2-for-4, RBI) also did damage at the dish.
Duris was charged with one run, which was unearned, and three hits in 7.2 innings.
Freshman A.J. Palumbo gave up six runs (four earned) on 10 hits in 4.0 innings of work; he walked four and struck out one. Fellow rookies James Schuld and Andrew Hartman combined to allow just an unearned run on four hits in splitting the final four frames.
The baseball team heads to Gwynedd Mercy for a non-conference game on Thursday.