The Dickinson Red Devil baseball team continued their recent strong play, extending their win streak to five before falling 7-2 to McDaniel on Tuesday, April 10. They finished their season sweep of out of conference rival Messiah, with a 9-4 win on April 4. They also swept another rival during their extraordinary win streak, the Gettysburg Bullets. They played the Bullets twice in one week, one game on April 3 and another game on April 5. On April 3 the game finished 8-2, advantage Dickinson. On April 5 the Red Devils traveled to Gettysburg to finish off the season series with a score of 5-1. However, the pivotal series of the week came against the Ursinus Bears. The doubleheader took place on April 7 and the Red Devils continued their fine run of form by winning both games in the series. In game one, the Devils snuck past the Bears with a narrow victory, 5-4. In the second game of the doubleheader the Devils were lead by historic pitching from Sean White ’12 and managed to hold with a 3-0 win.

This crucial series for the Dickinson Red Devils started with Ryan Kramer ’14 on the mound for the first game. He did not have as much success as his senior captain, Sean White, but he managed to keep Dickinson in the game throughout his start. He threw for five innings, allowing four runs off six hits. Andrew Mauro ‘13 was charged with the win after a stellar pitching performance in the last four innings of the game. At the time of his arrival, Dickinson were losing 4-3 and needed an ace like Mauro to keep Ursinus at bay in order for the Devils to have a chance to rally. He accomplished that goal by only allowing three hits and did not allow a run to cross the plate. The Red Devil hitting took care of the rest, with clutch hitting in the seventh inning. After some miscues by the Bear bullpen, with Joseph Tursi ’14 and Steven Haynes ’15 being walked, Tyler Rosa ’12 became the hero for Dickinson. He smashed an RBI double to deep left center field to score Tursi and Haynes. From that moment forward, the Devils cruised to a 5-4 victory.

The second game of the doubleheader was more known for a moment in history. Sean White pitched another brilliant game, while facing 27 hitters for the Bears, White only allowed two hits through nine innings and struck out 11. With the stellar performance, White broke the all-time Dickinson career strikeout record. Peter Sivess, who was part of the class of 1936, held the record with 243 strikeouts. White surpassed that mark with ease and extending the record to 253 strikeouts.

On breaking the mark, White said, “It’s feels good to beat the school strikeout record. It feels even better that our team is playing well and we are ready to break more records together in the next month.”

The Red Devil hitting delivered another fine performance, especially in the fourth and fifth innings. In the fourth inning, Garrett Horan ’12 started his great day with a double down the right field line. Haynes drove a single down the right field line to drive in Horan. Ben Sciambi ’12 got in on the action with a laser single down the right field line to bring in Haynes.

In the fifth inning, Tursi started hitting spree for the Red Devils with a single of his own down the right field line. Yet, it would be Horan again who would be the difference maker with a two run RBI double to give the Red Devils, what would turn out to be, the game winning hit.

Unfortunately, the winning streak would come to a screeching halt on Tuesday, April 10 with a home loss to McDaniel. The Red Devils matched the Green Terror blow for blow before the visitors broke the game open with a five-run eighth inning. Andrew Sterling ’12 gave the Red Devils the early lead. Sterling singled to start the bottom of the first inning and stole second to put himself in scoring position. Horan knocked him in with an RBI single and the Devils had a 1-0 lead. McDaniel would tie things up with a run in the top of the fourth, but the Devils would get that back a few innings later after a Sciambi sacrifice fly brought home Rosa, who doubled earlier in the inning. The Green Terror would respond in the seventh with another run to knot things up at two. The floodgates would open the following inning, however, as seven hits and an error led to five McDaniel runs, giving the visitors a lead that Dickinson wouldn’t be able to overcome.