The Muhlenberg baseball team split a doubleheader at Gettysburg to move closer to securing a Centennial Conference playoff berth.

Combined with other results, the split left the Mules (19-17, 9-8) tied for the fourth and final playoff spot with Dickinson and Swarthmore. If they beat Dickinson in their home finale on Sunday, they will clinch a spot regardless of what Swarthmore does.

Muhlenberg won the first game in a 14-inning marathon, 9-8, before dropping the nightcap, 7-6.

Senior Jon Capra went 5-for-8 in the opener, doubling in the tying run in the top of the ninth, singling and scoring the go-ahead run in the top of the 13th and singling in the winning run in the top of the 14th. Senior Matt Riebesell had three extra-base hits (two doubles and a triple), setting the school record for doubles in a season (18) and tying the mark for doubles in a career (40).

Muhlenberg trailed 7-4 heading into the ninth before staging a three-run rally. Sophomore Cameron Miller and senior Chris Grillo set the table with a walk and single, respectively, before Riebesell doubled off the fence to bring in both. Capra's double to the deepest part of the field in straightaway center plated Riebesell with the tying run.

Capra singled to lead off the 13th and was sacrificed to second by junior Brenden Weiss. With two outs, sophomore Robert Cappadona singled through the right side to easily score Capra. The Bullets (16-19, 5-12) tied the score in the bottom of the inning, however.

Riebesell walked with two outs and nobody on in the 14th and went to second on a walk to junior Jack Avallone. Capra greeted a new Gettysburg pitcher with a hard single up the middle to score Riebesell.

Freshman Will Nomura pitched six innings in relief, allowing only three hits and striking out four, to earn his second win. He got a big "save" from Grillo, who dove to his right at shortstop to keep a ball in the infield with two outs and two on in the bottom of the 14th. The next batter hit a harmless fly ball to left, ending the game with the bases loaded.

The game was the longest for the Mules since a 17-inning contest against Ursinus in 1975. After playing only one CC game that went at least 12 innings in the first 25 years of the league's existence, they have played three this year.

Muhlenberg nearly duplicated its ninth-inning comeback in the second game. Trailing by two runs with three outs to go, the Mules plated one run, but the game ended with the tying run on base.

Weiss hit a two-run single in the Mules' five-run fourth inning, and Avallone (pictured above) also had an RBI single. Junior John Serruto doubled twice.

With six extra-base hits in the doubleheader, the Mules tied the school record of 108 in a season.