Box Score SWARTHMORE, Pa. – The Ursinus College baseball team's bats went silent in a 6-1 Centennial Conference setback at Swarthmore on Monday, its first road loss in league play.
Charles Groppe limited the Bears to six singles and an unearned run in a complete-game victory as Swarthmore (13-21, 6-8) salvaged a split of the home-and-home series.
Ursinus (21-12, 8-6), which was held without an extra-base hit for the first time this season, fell into a tie with Gettysburg for second place in the CC following its fourth consecutive loss.
The Garnet jumped in front with a run in the first inning, as AJ Liu led off with a double against Ursinus sophomore David Drea and later scored on a groundout. Swarthmore tacked on two more in the fourth, the second on a two-out RBI single by Ryan Burnett.
Drea exited following a double by Wesley Fishburn that put runners on second and third with nobody out in the fifth, and the Garnet got a two-run single by Conor Elliott to make it 5-0. Elliott took second on the throw home and scored on consecutive fly-outs.
The Bears scored their lone run in the sixth, when freshman Dom Fiorentino singled through the right side and went to third as a walk to rookie Alex Mumme and a base hit by sophomore Carter Usowski loaded the bases with one out. Fiorentino scampered home when the Garnet catcher mishandled a high fastball from Groppe, but the right-hander limited the damage with a strikeout and groundout. Ursinus managed only one more base-runner the rest of the way, a two-out infield hit by senior Greg Petorak in the ninth.
Senior Alex Campbell and junior Travis Kozak also had singles for the Bears. Sophomore Matt Rapp pitched two scoreless innings out of the bullpen.
Drea (2-1) took his first loss of the season after allowing five runs on seven hits.
The baseball team looks to snap its skid at Muhlenberg on Tuesday.
