By Gabby Devaud
Elm Staff Writer
Last Saturday afternoon, Washington College and Dickinson split a Centennial Conference baseball doubleheader. The Shoremen won game one by a 6-5 score, while the Red Devils rallied for a 19-9 victory in game two.
WC senior shortstop Ryan Normoyle became the fifth player in Centennial Conference history to record 200 hits in his career.
Normoyle said, “After my freshman season, I knew that it was possible to get to 200 hits, but I also knew that it would be a lot of hard work. So I made it a long-term goal of mine, and I was fortunate enough to get enough at bats to achieve it.”
He recorded his milestone hit in the bottom of the eighth inning in game two on an RBI single through the right side of the infield. Normoyle, the Shoremen’s all-time leader in hits, is the first player from a school other than Johns Hopkins to reach the 200-hit milestone.
In game one, the Shoremen took a 2-0 lead with a run in the bottom of the third and fifth innings. Normoyle batted in sophomore Ian Remington on a sacrifice fly to left field in the third and Mahaffey scored on a throwing error by Dickinson in the bottom of the fifth. The Red Devils answered by scoring five times to take a 5-2 lead. WC answered right back by scoring four times in the bottom of the eighth to recapture the lead at 6-5. The Shoremen loaded the bases and a single to centerfield by sophomore Nick Marinelli plated Normoyle to trim the lead to 5-3. Senior John Rolewicz scored on a wild pitch cutting the lead to 5-4. Sophomore Jon Mahaffey delivered the game winning hit with a two-run single to left-center that scored junior Tyler Cotterell and Marinelli.
WC had seven hits in game one. Connole went 2-for-2 and Mahaffey drove in two runs. On the mound, sophomore pitcher AJ Schmalfuhs earned the win and improved to 1-1. He went two innings and did not allow a run while striking out two in relief of senior pitcher Shane Mattingly, who struck out eight hitters in seven innings, while allowing nine hits.
In game two, Dickinson scored four times to take a 4-0 lead in the top of the first.
The Shoremen scored twice in the bottom of the second to cut the lead to 4-2 as Rolewicz and Cotterell scored on RBI groundouts by senior Dwight Wilcox and Mahaffey. The Red Devils took a 6-2 lead in the top of the third on a two-run homerun.
The Shoremen got one back in the bottom of the third when Normoyle singled to right-center to knock in Connole to make it 6-3. Dickinson scored five times in the top of the fifth to take an 11-3 lead. The Shoremen got two back in the bottom of the fifth when Normoyle scored on a single up the middle by Cotterell. Rolewicz scored on a groundout by Wilcox to cut the lead to 11-5. Dickinson scored twice in the top of the sixth, four times in the top of the seventh, and two in the top of the eighth, while WC scored once in the bottom of the sixth, twice in the bottom of the seventh, and once in the bottom of the eighth to end the game at 19-9.
Washington had 17 hits in game two. Normoyle went a perfect 4-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBI and Cotterell went 2-for-3 with two RBI. Connole went 2-for-5 with two runs scored, while Wilcox drove in two runs. On the mound, junior Joe Kearney-Argow took the loss and dropped to 3-2.
On Tuesday, the Shoremen were defeated by Wesley 8-3. WC now has a 24-10 overall and 9-7 record in conference play for the season.
Washington scored twice in the top of the first inning to take a 2-0 lead. Connole scored on a sacrifice fly by Rolewicz for the game’s first run and freshman Scott Matthews scored on an RBI groundout by Cotterell. After the Wolverines pulled ahead with a 5-2 lead, WC cut the score to 5-3 in the top of the eighth. Mahaffey stole third base and scored on a throwing error.
The Wolverines answered in the bottom of the eighth by scoring three times to end the game.
WC had seven hits in the game. Matthews went 2-for-4 with a run scored. On the mound, sophomore Tim Perrotta took the loss and dropped to 1-1.
When asked about the rest of the season, Normoyle said, “We feel that we are in a good spot right now. If we take care of business on Saturday and play our style of baseball, we should be in the tournament. From that point, anything can happen.”
WC closes out its regular season schedule on Saturday with two Centennial Conference games at Muhlenburg starting at 12:30 p.m.