Opening Day for Major League Baseball was this Sunday, but the Red Devil baseball team got a head start with their first two games of Centennial Conference play on Saturday afternoon. After a week off, the Red Devils faced off against Swarthmore in a double header, and Dickinson ended the day with a brilliant 2-0 record against the Garnet.

Swarthmore kicked off the first game with a bang, scoring two runs on a double and a home run, and holding Dickinson scoreless until the bottom of the third inning when the Red Devils capitalized on three straight hits, including an RBI triple from senior Ryan Dolan. In the fifth inning Robbie Thompson ’18 tripled for his second hit of the game, and scored the tying run off another RBI single from Phil Werner ’16. The Red Devils kept Swarthmore scoreless until the top of the sixth, allowing the Garnet to pull ahead 4-3.

Ultimately that run didn’t matter, after Dickinson scored three in the bottom of the eighth, capitalizing on hits from Matt Primavera ’16, Stephen Sakowicz ’19, and a double from Max Brown ’19. Senior Matt Cowell came away with the win, pitching three strong innings of relief, while Cristian Acosta ’17 had seven strikeouts in 5.2 innings of work.

First-year Ben Woodard made quite an impression in his Centennial Conference debut, going eight scoreless innings and allowing only five hits and no walks. In the first three innings of work he faced just 11 batters, on his way to recording a season-high ten strikeouts on the night. The Red Devils were able to capitalize on this strong pitching performance when they got on the board in the second inning, with three straight hits and an error by Swarthmore. The Red Devils took advantage of another Garnet error in the fourth to make the score 3-0, but three runs proved to be insufficient and Dickinson came back again in the seventh to score two more off a double from Dolan and base-hit singles from Werner and Thompson. Garrett Kurtz ’16 completed the shut-out with a hitless ninth inning.

After his dynamic debut, Woodard was named the Centennial Conference Baseball Pitcher of the Week. The Red Devils season looks bright. Woodard’s continued production in the rotation has certainly been one of the highlights thus far. Ryan Dolan, who returned from injury over the weekend, also looks to bring some much needed firepower to the Red Devil lineup.

Dickinson will host the Johns Hopkins Bluejays on Friday afternoon at Dickinson Park. First pitch is at 3:30. They then head to Haverford on Saturday.