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For the third-consecutive season, the Franklin & Marshall baseball team (19-19, 11-7 CC) is heading back to the Centennial Conference (CC) Tournament as the Diplomats split its doubleheader with No. 8 Johns Hopkins (29-9, 16-2 CC) Saturday afternoon. The Blue Jays outlasted F&M in a 17-16 slugfest in game one, but the Diplomats responded with a 6-3 victory in game two.

Standings in Centennial Conference before final game Saturday. Top 4 teams make the playoffs that start Thursday.

Game 1 Scoring:

Game 2 scoring:

With F&M’s win and Swarthmore’s loss at Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall will now host Haverford in a home playoff game to start the CC Tournament on Tuesday.

Game 1: No. 8 Johns Hopkins 17, Franklin & Marshall 16
An offensive battle throughout the game, the Diplomats erased a six-run deficit that was held early in the contest to take the lead in the sixth. JHU then scored five runs to overtake F&M in the bottom of the sixth. However, Franklin & Marshall chipped away at the Blue Jays’ lead to cut it to one in the ninth, but couldn’t bring the tying run across to drop the opening game of the doubleheader.

In the contest, Bobby Falese broke the F&M single-game home run record with three blasts, while also tying the single-game RBI record of seven that he also set earlier this season.

Trailing 17-13 in the top of the eighth, Nolan McCloskey and Jakob Hoffman led off the inning by each getting hit by pitches. Back-to-back walks to AJ Desautels and Andrew Filippelli brought in a run to cut the deficit to three. Tanner Wolpert then put the ball in play on a groundout to bring home Hoffman and make the score 17-15.

In the ninth, Falese blasted his third home run of the game over the right field fence to get the Diplomats within a run of tying the game. However, JHU forced the next two batters to groundout – ending the game.

In addition to Falese’s great game, Drew Butera was brilliant at the plate as he tallied three hits, including his sixth home run of the season. Butera also drove-in four RBI in the contest as both him and Falese recorded 11 of the team’s 15 RBI in the game.

Colin Mackenzie (1-2) was the losing pitcher in the contest as he allowed five earned runs in 1.2 innings of relief. Luca Marshall earned a no-decision in his game one start with four strikeouts and five earned runs allowed in four innings pitched.

Game 2: Franklin & Marshall 6, No. 8 Johns Hopkins 3
The Diplomats bounced back in game two as F&M scored two runs in both the second and fourth innings to gain an early lead. The Diplomats’ bullpen held the Blue Jays to just three hits in the final four innings to secure the victory for Franklin & Marshall.

With Spencer Berson on third with two outs in the top of the first, Hoffman ripped a single up the middle of the infield to give the Diplomats an early 1-0 lead. The Blue Jays quickly answered with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game up at 1-1.

In the top of the second, Filippelli singled and Patrick Cettina doubled to put runners in scoring position with no outs. Berson then brought both Diplomats home on a single into right center field to give F&M a 3-1 lead.

After JHU scored a run in the bottom of the third, F&M responded with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth on a two-run home run from Hoffman over the left field wall. With his seventh home run of the season, Hoffman added insurance to the F&M lead as the visitors took a 5-2 advantage. The Diplomats capped their scoring in the top of the seventh as an RBI fielder’s choice from Filippelli scored Hoffman to extend F&M’s lead to 6-3.

Hoffman led F&M with two hits, three RBI, and two runs scored in the win.

Thomas McLaughlin (3-2) earned his third win of the year as he struck out two and allowed just one hit in two innings of relief. Kiernan Keller picked up his second save of the season, striking out three and allowing two hits in 2.1 innings of work. Will O’Connor was tagged with a no-decision in his start – tossing one strikeout and allowing three earned runs in 4.2 innings on the mound.

Franklin & Marshall earned the No. 4 seed in the Centennial Conference Tournament. The Diplomats will be hosting the No. 5 seed Haverford on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m.