SWARTHMORE, Pa. – The third-seeded Haverford College baseball team (22–15) fell to second-seeded Swarthmore (24–16) by an 8–5 final in Centennial Conference tournament action on a beautiful Thursday afternoon at Clothier Field.
First-year shortstop Jackson Sgro continued his electric stretch at the plate with a three-hit performance, including a pair of doubles. Chuck Norton also tallied three hits, while Anthony Runfola added two hits and two RBIs.
Swarthmore opened the scoring in the bottom of the first, as Aidan Sullivan singled ahead of a Matt Silvestre double to give the Garnet an early 1–0 lead. Haverford answered in the top of the second with a rally led by a trio of seniors. Jonny Flieder singled, Norton doubled, and Daniel Rosman drove them both in with a single up the middle, putting the Fords ahead 2–1.
The Garnet responded quickly in the bottom half. After a walk to Ben Johnston and consecutive hits from Zac Kahn and Max Beadling, Aidan Sullivan delivered a two-out triple that cleared the bases, sparking a five-run inning and giving Swarthmore a 6–2 lead.
Both teams traded scoreless frames in the middle innings. Drew Doyle was outstanding in relief of rookie starter David Bertz, allowing just one hit and one walk over three strong innings. Jack Couture and Riley Grohowski followed out of the bullpen, and together the relievers limited the Garnet to just three hits and struck out three.
In the top of the seventh, Sgro laced a two-out double down the left field line, and Runfola followed by launching a two-run homer to left, narrowing the deficit to 6–4. However, Swarthmore answered in the bottom of the inning with a two-run homer from Johnston to restore their cushion.
Haverford continued to battle. In the eighth, Miles Prusek delivered a clutch single to right field to score pinch-runner Matt Dahl, trimming the margin to just three at 8–5.
Notably, Harry Genth's 33-game hit streak—the second-longest in Centennial Conference history—came to an end, as Swarthmore pitchers Noah Potholm and Zach Potthoff did just enough to hold him off the basepaths.
On the mound, Swarthmore starter Potholm (7–2) was strong as he earned the win with a seven-inning outing, allowing 10 hits and five earned runs while walking just one. Potthoff secured his second save of the season with two scoreless innings, entering in a jam in the eighth and closing the door despite working through traffic in each frame.
Haverford will now face McDaniel in an elimination game on Saturday at 10 a.m. at Babb Field in Baltimore, Md., as the Centennial Conference Championships continue on the campus of top-seeded Johns Hopkins.
