The Muhlenberg baseball team closed out its regular season with a doubleheader sweep at Franklin & Marshall, winning a wild first game 12-8 in 11 innings before claiming the nightcap, 4-1.

The Mules (19-20, 8-10), whose win total for the season has been topped only five times in program history, are in the mix for a Centennial Conference playoff berth heading into the final day of the regular season (the other four scheduled CC twinbills were all postponed to Sunday). Haverford and McDaniel (both 8-8) and Gettysburg and Dickinson (both 7-9) are in contention for the last three playoff spots along with Muhlenberg. Haverford plays a doubleheader at Dickinson, while McDaniel is at Swarthmore and Gettysburg at Washington College on Sunday. 

Muhlenberg's first doubleheader sweep in Lancaster since 2014 came with a pair of milestones for senior Brendan Hughes, who recorded both the 100th RBI of his career and the 100th strikeout of his career. He is only the sixth player in program history to reach the century mark in RBI, and the first of those six to also fan 100 batters.

Hughes pitched six strong innings in the opener and left with a 4-2 lead, but the Diplomats (21-19, 7-11) tied it with two in the seventh. The Mules went ahead 5-4 in the eighth on an RBI single by senior Aidan Legner, and again F&M came back to tie, with a two-out hit in the bottom of the ninth.

Each team plated three runs in 10th, with an RBI single by Hughes and a two-run single by sophomore Spencer Hobson bringing home Muhlenberg's runs. 

Finally, in the 11th, the Mules took a lead that proved to be insurmountable, scoring four runs on only one hit, a two-run single by freshman Chris Moglia. The Mules drew three walks in the inning and had three players hit by pitch, wrapping up a game in which they had 11 hit batsmen, two short of the Division III record. Graduate student Jack Kent and senior Brendan Bussiere were each hit three times in the game, tying a school record that Bussiere had tied once previously.

Sophomore Charlie Siper tossed a hitless bottom of the 11th to bring the near four-hour marathon to a close.

Moglia went 3-for-5 in the game, while Kent was perfect at the plate, with a single, the three HBPs, two walks and a sacrifice.

The second game was mild in comparison, as two Muhlenberg freshmen shut down the Diplomats on eight hits. Righty Shane Ohl tossed the first six innings, allowing only four hits, and southpaw Kieran Mulholland (pictured above) finished up for his first career save.

The Mules broke a 1-1 tie with three runs in the fifth. Bussiere doubled in the first two and scored the third on an error.