The Muhlenberg baseball team headed into the second half of the Centennial Conference with a home doubleheader split against Franklin & Marshall.

The Mules (13-16-1, 6-4) took the first game, 9-2, and dropped the second, 4-3, against a Diplomat team that finished first in the CC preseason poll. With eight league games to play, Muhlenberg is tied for third place in the CC. The Mules' six CC wins are one more than they had all last year.

Senior Jake Swerdloff hit his first two home runs of the season, one in each game of the doubleheader. Although this is the third straight year that a Muhlenberg player has homered in both ends of a twinbill, Swerdloff is only the second to accomplish the feat at home since 2011, and the first to do it against F&M since 1987.

The Mules got outstanding starting pitching from Quinn Rovner in the opener. The senior righty tossed seven innings, allowing only one run on five hits, to pick up his third win of the season.

Sophomore Ethan Brochin came on in relief with the bases loaded and nobody out in the top of the eighth and struck out two of the first three batters he faced to prevent the Diplomats (20-12, 7-3) from creeping back into the game. He then worked a 1-2-3 ninth to close out the win.

Muhlenberg struck four for runs in both the second and third innings. In the second, hits down opposite lines - an opposite-field double by Swerdloff down the right-field line and a single by junior Jack Kent that hugged the third-base line before hitting the bag - brought in the first three runs, and a single by senior Christian Schwarz plated the fourth.

Junior Ryan Riccio singled in a run in the third to make it 5-0, and Swerdloff followed with a three-run blast to left to break the game open.

Sophomore Brendan Hughes scored on a wild pitch (pictured above) in the fourth for Muhlenberg's ninth run.

Junior Ryan Friesen went 3-for-5  and scored twice. Swerdloff added a third extra-base hit, a double, in the sixth.

F&M took the early lead in the nightcap, scoring two runs in the top of the first. The Mules cut the gap in half in the fourth on a single by junior Jonathan Toth and a double by Hughes, and in the next inning Swerdloff tied the game with a blast to straightaway center.

The Diplomats went back ahead, 3-2 with a run in the top of the seventh. In the bottom of the eighth, Kent led off with a single and scored on a two-out triple by Toth to tie the game again.

F&M scored what proved to be the winning run on a wild pitch in the top of the ninth. Muhlenberg got the tying run to third in the bottom of the ninth but could not push it across. 

Hughes hit a pair of doubles in the second game, giving him three for the day. Senior Caleb Tereska extended his hitting streak to 10 in the first game before going hitless in the nightcap. Kent reached base in seven of nine plate appearances in the two games.