WASHINGTON - The Dickinson baseball team began their 2023 campaign on a windy Sunday afternoon in the nation's capital at Talbot Field taking on the Cardinals of Catholic University in a non-conference doubleheader. Unfortunately, for the Red and White despite late inning pushes in both contests the home side left with a two-game sweep winning by scores of 3-2 and 13-7.
Game One - Catholic 3, DEVILS 2
Pitching Decision
W - Brendan Martin (1-0) | L -
Austin Buzza (0-1)
Inside the Game
Starting pitchers
Ethan Hamilton and Tucker Alch had no issues in the first as Hamilton surrendered a two-out hit to Ben Nardi, but got Lucas Malave to bounce out to second for the final out. Alch retired the Devs in order in the second to bring the home team to the dish. Four straight singles for the Cards plated two against Hamilton and made it 2-0 heading to the third.
Alch and Hamilton went back on cruise control over the next two frames as both pitchers went "six-up and six-down" to move the seven-inning game to the fifth still at 2-0. Dickinson finally recorded their first hit of the season when
Christian Kim knocked one into right-field. Unfortunately, DC could not put anything together as
Kaden Sigmon reached on a fielder's choice, but was then picked off at first to leave the bases empty with two gone for
Matt Torres who struck out. Hamilton continued to give his team a chance to get back into the game as he setdown the hosts in order during the home-half of the frame.
The Red and White got to the Catholic bullpen in the sixth as Cody Bosak took over for Alch. After a
Colin Jones strikeout,
Ryan Thompson doubled and
Nathan Bowman legged out an infield single to put two on for
Kenny Tagliareni who advanced Thompson to third with a fly out to left leaving them on the corners with two away. That brought first-year
Dylan Posencheg to the dish where he delivered a two-run triple to deep right-center to knot the score.
Derek Smith was then hit by.a pitch, before Kim popped out to end the rally. Buzza took to the hill in the home-half looking to provide a shutdown inning. He ran into some trouble allowing three straight runners with one out for Jesse Lacefield. Buzza worked his way around the jam by inducing a 1-2-3 double play to stall the threat. Dickinson would get a runner into scoring position with two away thanks to a Torres hit and then a stolen base by pinch-runner
Will Ferris, but he was left out there when Thompson grounded out to first. Catholic ended the game in the bottom-half when Matthew Fisher worked a leadoff walk and then moved around to third on a sac bunt and a fly out. That brought up Zach Burton with two out and the winning run at third, which he drove in with a knock to center for the 3-2 win.
Game Two - Catholic 13, DEVILS 7
Pitching Decision
W - Jake Kennedy (1-0) | L -
Peyton Fox (0-1)
Inside the Game
Cardinals starter Danny Fitzgerald kicked off the nine-inning contest by going "three-up, three-down" in the first. DC starter
Grayson Walker ran into trouble during the bottom of the frame as he allowed the first four runners to reach with two of them coming home, before three consecutive strikeouts ended the rally at 2-0. After a quiet second and top of third the Cardinals added two more in the last of the third thanks to two hits and an error for a 4-0 edge heading to the fourth. The hosts tacked on  another run an inning later when Nardi took reliever Kolb Peichel over the right field fence. Catholic continued to put distance between themselves and the Devils during the sixth when
Pat Metzger allowed three straight men to reach, before Malave sent one up-the-middle to drive in one (6-0), which was followed by a balk scoring the seventh of the game. Metzger then got Shane Newsome to bounce out to Tagliareni at short for the final out.
Despite being in a 7-0 hole entering the top of the seventh the Devils did not go down quietly as
Chase Weller and Torres reached with two men down leading to an RBI double by Bowman to score one. He was followed by Tagliareni who ripped one to right-center plating two and letting him get to third trimming the gap to 7-3 leading to Skylar McLean replacing Will Hanson. He was then greeted by a single from Posencheg plating one. Smith was then hit by McLean and Kim worked a free pass to fill the bags with Devils for
Johnny Bruno. He took the McLean offering and deposited the ball into left-center driving in both Posencheg and Smith to pull within 7-6. Walks to Torres and Weller forced in the tying run, before a strikeout of
Campbell Brusman killed the rally. Unfortunately, for DC the Cardinals scored six times in the bottom of the frame thanks to three walks, three hits and one hit batter to take a 13-7 advantage to the eighth.
Dickinson would not be afforded an opportunity to get back into the game after that as Lucky Perrotto pitched 1.2 innings of one-hit ball to close out the game.
The On-Deck Circle
Dickinson (0-2) returns to action on Saturday afternoon at 12pm in Salem, Virginia for a doubleheader against Roanoke College.
