Box Score
(Carlisle, Pa.) – The Dickinson baseball team rallied to a 6-5 win over visiting Muhlenberg College as sophomore Phil Werner (Potomac, Md./Bullis School) delivered a clutch, walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Junior right-hander Matt Cowell (Devon, Pa./Conestoga) had a strong start, retiring the first three batters in order, to open the game. Muhlenberg starter Troy Elias had a similar start, facing just 13 batters through the first four innings.
John Icaza reached on a double in the second as the ball dropped into shallow left field. Muhlenberg added a single in the third and loaded the bases in the fifth, but Cowell and the Red Devil defense rose to the challenge to close out the inning without allowing any runs.
Steven Haynes (Mt. Kisco, N.Y./Horace Greeley) and Robbie Thompson (Camp Hill, Pa./Camp Hill) reached on back-to-back, two-out singles in the bottom of the fifth before Luke Besse (Marston Mills, Mass./Barnstable) drew a walk to load the bases. Sophomore Ryan Dolan (Plymouth Meeting, Pa./Germantown Academy) then delivered with a two-RBI single to put the Red Devils on the board with a 2-0 lead.
Muhlenberg scored lone runs in the sixth and seventh to pull even, 2-2. Nick Kennedy led-off the sixth with a single and scored on an RBI base-hit from Chris Manfredonia. Mike Giordano reached on a two-base error and scored off a single by Jimmy Cody that tied the game.
Senior Mike DeVivo (Ridgefield, Conn./Ridgefield) led-off the seventh with a two-base error to trigger another two-run inning for Dickinson. He came around to score on a double down the left field line from Haynes. Besse followed up with a single to score Haynes, putting the Devils back on top, 4-2.
Haynes tallied another RBI in the bottom of the eighth, scoring Matt Primavera (Erdenheim, Pa./Chestnut Hill Academy), who reached on a lead-off single to start the inning.
Muhlenberg rallied to keep the game alive with three runs in the top of the ninth. Manfredonia drew a lead-off walk, followed by a single from Kurt Johnson. That led to an RBI double by Giordano and a pair of sacrifice fly-outs to knot the game, 5-5.
That would set the stage for a thrilling ending as Besse singled to start things off in the bottom of the ninth. Pinch-runner Austin Davis (W. Trenton, N.J./Pennington School) moved to second when Dolan drew a walk. Davis wheeled around third as Werner connected and drove the ball up the middle, coming in to score the game-winning run for the Red Devils.
Haynes finished 3-for-4 on the day with a double, two runs scored and two clutch RBIs. Besse finished 2-for-3 with a walk while Dolan singled in two runs and walked twice. Cowell went a solid seven innings before Mo Felt (Berlin, Germany/Linsly School) came on in relief and would earn the win.
Troy Elias threw six solid innings for Muhlenberg (12-16, 6-9 CC), recording six strikeouts while scattering five hits over 6.2 innings. Giordano went 2-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored.
The Red Devils improve to 11-20-1 overall and 5-9-1 in the Centennial Conference. They travel to Allentown on Friday to face the Mules again before returning to MacPhail Field on Saturday for a double-header with Washington College.
