LANCASTER, Pa. – The Franklin & Marshall baseball team (9-13, 1-1 CC) earned its first Centennial Conference (CC) win of the season in an 11-8 victory over Gettysburg (11-13, 0-3 CC) Friday afternoon at Caplan Field. The Diplomats led by as much as seven runs in the contest, but the Bullets didn't go away without a fight – cutting the F&M lead to three before F&M slammed the door closed on Gettysburg's comeback hopes.

In the win, Bobby Falese became the program's all-time RBI leader with his 114th-career RBI coming in the seventh inning to pass Dan Marano '19 in the F&M career record books.

Franklin & Marshall got the scoring started in the bottom of the second as Michael von Zuben led off the frame with a walk and immediately stole second on the next at-bat. A single from Drew Butera moved von Zuben to third - setting up Andrew Filippelli to single through the left side and bring home the sophomore from third to give F&M a 1-0 lead.

The Bullets quickly responded with a run of their own in the top of the third. However, F&M put together a huge inning at the plate to drive home a total of six runs in the bottom of the fourth. Leading off the inning, Matt Hollender reached base on an error and advanced to third on a pickoff attempt that escaped the Gettysburg first baseman. Filippelli would capitalize with a single into the left center field gap to bring home the F&M catcher and push the Diplomats back into the lead. Patrick Cettina worked a walk and AJ Desautels singled to load the bases with no outs in the frame. The following batter, Spencer Berson extended his hitting streak to 15 games by ripping a single through the left side of the infield -scoring both runners and extending the lead to 4-1. Jakob Hoffman capped the rally with a double down the left field line to score Berson and make the Diplomats' lead 7-1.

After an RBI-sacrifice fly from Desautels in the bottom of the fifth pushed the F&M lead to 8-1, Gettysburg began chipping away at the deficit to get with four runs. Beginning the bottom of the seventh, Cettina walked and worked his way around the bases on a passed ball and a steal of third. At that point, Falese roped a single into left center to bring home his record-setting RBI to give the Diplomats a 9-4 advantage. Falese then worked his way to third and later scored on a sacrifice fly from Hoffman to give F&M a six-run cushion.

After Gettysburg scored two runs in the top of the eighth, F&M added more insurance in the bottom half of the inning. Von Zuben reached base on a single and immediately stole second. After a passed ball allowed the F&M left fielder to reach third, von Zuben was brought home on a Gettysburg balk to improve the lead to 11-6. The Bullets scored two runs in the top of the ninth and brought the tying run to the plate with one out in the frame. However, Thomas McLaughlin forced a strikeout and a pop out to end the game – earning himself his third save of the season.

Von Zuben led the team with three hits, while Filippelli and Hoffman each tallied two in the win. Berson, Filippelli, Hoffman, and von Zuben all recorded two-RBI in the game. On the basepaths, Cettina and von Zuben each swiped two stolen bases in the victory.

Kiernan Keller (1-1) earned his first win on the mound this season as he struck out five and allowed just one earned run in 5.2 innings pitched.

The win over Gettysburg marked the 199th-career victory in Ryan Horning's tenure as head coach of the Franklin & Marshall baseball program. The Diplomats look to bring him his 200th-career victory on Saturday as they get set for a road doubleheader against McDaniel, beginning at noon.