If you happened to be anywhere near Collegeville on Friday afternoon and heard something go boom, don't worry. That wasn’t thunder.
That was Harry Genth.
The Haverford slugger rewrote a piece of school history and helped the Fords (17–12, 6–6 CC) slug their way past Ursinus (17–15, 4–8 CC) in a wild, see-sawing 12–9 win at Thomas Field—a game that had enough plot twists to fill a doubleheader.
And if you blinked, you missed history.
Genth saw the game’s very first pitch—and deposited it over the left-field wall. That solo shot wasn’t just a tone-setter. It tied Haverford’s all-time home run record, equaling the 35 hit by Ben Einbinder all the way back in the flip-phone era of 2007.
Six innings later? Genth did what cleanup hitters do: cleaned up the record books. With one swing in the seventh, he belted No. 36, claimed the school record all for himself, and added a new line to the national leaderboard—his 17 home runs now lead the entire NCAA across all three divisions. Oh, and did we mention? That blast also extended his hitting streak to 29 games and made it five straight contests with a home run, tying the Centennial Conference record.
If there was a plot twist left, it probably came from Jackson Sgro, who turned the game into his own personal hit parade. The senior second baseman had a career-best four hits, including two doubles, and drove in three runs. Jack Wallis and Anthony Runfola added two hits and two RBIs apiece as the Fords pounded out 13 hits and drew seven walks.
But if this was a story of fireworks, it was also one of survival. Because every time Haverford pulled ahead, Ursinus did what good teams do—they clawed right back.
The Fords jumped ahead 2–0 after Genth’s leadoff homer and an RBI single from Sgro, only to watch Ursinus counterpunch with a three-run bottom half thanks to wild pitches, a passed ball, and a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch.
So Haverford did what they do best: they flipped the script again. A five-run second inning featured a bases-loaded walk by—you guessed it—Genth, and back-to-back RBI hits from Wallis, Runfola, and Sgro. That made it 7–3, which felt safe for about five minutes.
Ursinus answered in the third, Haverford answered in the fourth. Ursinus closed the gap again in the bottom half. And on it went.
Wallis drove in a run in the fifth and later scored on a wild pitch. Miles Prusek singled in another in the sixth. Then came Genth’s thunderclap in the seventh—a no-doubt-about-it blast to dead center that gave Haverford just enough breathing room to finally exhale.
Still, Ursinus had one last gasp.
A pair of runs in the sixth and eighth made it interesting, and with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the eighth, center fielder Daniel Rosman delivered the play of the game: a full-extension, lunging catch on a sinking liner that might’ve tied the game if it got by him. Instead, it ended the inning, preserved the lead, and maybe, just maybe, saved the season.
Three relievers—Adam Naegelen, Wyatt Mattison, and Riley Grohowski—combined for seven innings of four-run work with 10 strikeouts. Naegelen got the win with 3.1 steady innings. Mattison battled through 77 pitches in 2.2 innings, allowing just one run. And Grohowski, handed a three-run cushion in the ninth, locked it down for his second save of the season.
All told, it was Genth’s day, but it took every ounce of offense, defense, and bullpen grit to make sure it stayed that way.
And now? No rest for the record-setters. Haverford heads home for a Saturday doubleheader against Washington College—a series with playoff implications, and maybe, another chapter of fireworks to write.
