LANCASTER, Pa. – The Franklin & Marshall baseball team (8-13, 0-1 CC) fell, 7-1, against Swarthmore (11-9, 1-0 CC) in its Centennial Conference (CC) opener Saturday afternoon. Originally scheduled to be a doubleheader, game two of Saturday's twinbill was postponed due to rain. The make-up date for the contest has not yet been determined.

The Garnet broke into the scoring column first in the top of the first inning with two runs scoring on a double. F&M looked to respond in the bottom half of the frame as Michael von Zuben doubled and Jakob Hoffman legged out an infield single to put runners at the corners with two outs. However, Swarthmore forced a groundout to escape the inning without allowing a run.
Swarthmore scored a total of five runs across the first four innings of the contest to jump ahead, 5-0.

F&M was limited on the bases throughout the game, but built up traffic in the bottom of the eighth. Spencer Berson and von Zuben both recorded singles in the frame to reach with two outs. Despite both batters reaching, a pop out in the infield extinguished any scoring opportunity.

After Swarthmore scored a pair of runs in the top of the ninth, F&M finally broke up the shutout in the bottom half of the frame. AJ Desautels walked and Matt Hollender reached on a fielder's choice to place runners at the corners with two outs. A balk would bring home Desautels to cut the Swarthmore lead to 7-1, but that would be the only run F&M could push across as the third out was recorded just a few pitches later.

Von Zuben led the Diplomats with two hits, while Berson, Bobby Falese, and Hoffman each tallied one. With his single in the bottom of the eighth, Berson has now extended his hitting streak to 14 games.

Dan Galef (2-3) was tagged with the loss, striking out five and allowing five earned runs in 3.1 innings on the mound. Kiernan Keller pitched well in relief, picking up five strikeouts without allowing an earned run in 5.2 innings.

Franklin & Marshall now heads to Gettysburg on Tuesday to begin a home-and-home series with the Bullets. First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.