LANCASTER, Pa. – The Franklin & Marshall baseball team (16-18, 8-6 CC) was held off in its comeback attempt against Swarthmore (18-15, 8-6 CC), 6-5, in Sunday morning's Centennial Conference (CC) game at Caplan Field. The Diplomats made a late push in the contest with two runs in the bottom of the eighth to cut the deficit to one, but the Garnet denied F&M's comeback hopes in the ninth as Swarthmore ended the game by escaping a bases-loaded jam.

After Swarthmore plated three runs in the top of the eighth, F&M rallied in the bottom of the frame as AJ Desautels led off with a bunt-single. Matt Hollender then ripped a double over the center fielder's head to score Desautels all the way from first to get the Diplomats within two. The next batter, Patrick Cettina singled up the middle to score Hollender to make the score, 6-5.

In the bottom of the ninth, Bobby Falese singled and Michael von Zuben reached on a fielding error to put two runners on with no outs. Swarthmore picked up the first out of the inning on a fly out, but a wild pitch allowed both runners to advance into scoring position during the next at-bat. Drew Butera drew an intentional walk to load the bases, but a strikeout and a flyout to deep left field ended the game to give Swarthmore the season sweep over the Diplomats.

Swarthmore jumped out to an early 3-0 lead to start the game, but F&M chipped away at the deficit. In the bottom of the fourth, Andrew Filippelli led off the frame with a double into left field. The next batter, Hollender doubled into the right center field gap to plate Filippelli for the Diplomats' first run of the contest.

F&M continued to apply pressure on offense in the bottom of the fifth as Jakob Hoffman launched his sixth home run of the season over the left field fence to get Franklin & Marshall within a run. The Diplomats tied the game up in the bottom of the seventh as Falese walked and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from von Zuben. Hoffman then roped a single into right field to score Falese – tying the game at 3-3.

Hoffman and Hollender led the Diplomats with three hits and two RBI each. F&M as a team out-hit Swarthmore, 12-6, in the contest.

Dax Bush (0-2) was tagged with the loss, striking out one and allowing one earned run in one inning of relief. Luca Marshall had a stellar performance on the mound in his sixth start of the season. Marshall struck out a career-high 11 batters, while allowing just one earned run in 6.2 innings pitched. Thomas McLaughlin helped keep the Diplomats within striking distance as he struck out two and didn't allow a hit in 1.1 inning of relief.

Franklin & Marshall now set its sights on Dickinson as it travels to play the Red Devils on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.