LANCASTER, Pa. - Franklin & Marshall's baseball team closed its 2021 season with a split at Dickinson on Saturday afternoon. The Diplomats (10-5, 10-4 CC) got another brilliant performance on the mound from Kyle Roche during their game one victory. The Red Devils (8-8, 7-7 CC) used a five-run seventh inning to turn a tied game two into an eventual 9-3 victory.

Game 1: Franklin & Marshall 2, Dickinson 1

Roche started seven Centennial Conference contests for the Diplomats this season and won them all. He capped his perfect year by scattering three hits over seven innings of work while striking out five. F&M's bullpen closed out the victory with Greg Nieskens allowing just one hit in the eighth before Stephen Turzai struck out two and walked one to record his fourth save of the season. Roche did not allow more than four hits in any of his starts this season. Over his 82 innings of work, he struck out 83 batters and allowed just 65 hits. Roche finishes his junior campaign with an ERA of 1.00. He did not allow more than two earned runs during any of his starts this year and did not allow a single earned run in three of those seven outings.

F&M took the early lead in game one as Don DiLoreto started the second inning with a leadoff double into left field. Another hit from Steven Rizzo put a pair of runners in scoring position with nobody out. After a strikeout from Dickinson's Jake Geddes, Pat Elliott was rewarded for putting the ball in play with an RBI groundout before the Red Devils escaped further damage. The Diplomats made it 2-0 just one inning later as J.J. Freeman got the rally started with a two-out single and quickly stole second base. DiLoreto continue the clutch hitting, finding the grass in left field for the 2-0 F&M lead.

Dickinson's only run of the first game came on sacrifice fly during the fifth inning. A single, walk, and hit batter loaded the bases for the visitors. Nevertheless, Roche was able to mitigate the damage as he allowed just a sacrifice fly as F&M maintained its lead. When Roche exited after the seventh, the Red Devils had runners in scoring position during both the eighth and ninth innings. Nieskens got a strikeout looking in the eighth to strand a two-out double, while Turzai get his second punch out of the ninth inning to strand the potential game-tying run at third. F&M's pitching stranded eight Red Devils on the base paths throughout the game one victory.

Game 2: Dickinson 9, Franklin & Marshall 3

The Diplomats once again went out to the early lead in game two. Michael Cole got the Diplomats' half of the third started by beating out an infield single before he was bunted into scoring position by Drew Butera. An RBI knock from Will Samuel made the score 1-0 F&M. Samuel promptly stole second and came around to score F&M's second two-out run of the inning as Freeman roped a single into right centerfield. Faced with a deficit for the second straight game, Dickinson was not going to go down without a fight. The Red Devils answered those two runs in their next turn up to bat as four singles helped them tie the game at two-all.

After shutting down the Red Devils during game one, Franklin & Marshall went back to the bullpen for the seventh inning after starter Matt Devlin gave his side six innings of work while striking out six. However, F&M could not duplicate that shutdown performance from the bullpen in game two as Dickinson scored five runs on three hits with the help of a defensive miscue and two walks in a big seventh inning. That left F&M with just nine outs to work with as they attempted to erase the deficit. Freeman came around to score on an RBI double from DiLoreto in the eighth but not before the Red Devils stretched their lead to 9-2 during the top half of that inning.

Franklin & Marshall kept the pressure up in that eighth inning as the Diplomats loaded the bases with nobody out in addition to the run that they had already pushed across the plate. This time it was the Red Devils' bullpen that came up clutch with three straight outs to strand the bases loaded and carry a 9-3 lead into the ninth. F&M's bullpen stranded the bases loaded full of Red Devils in the ninth, but that momentum did not carry into the bottom half of the inning as the Diplomats were retired in order. Samuel and Cole each record two hits for the Diplomats to lead the offense in game two.

With the split on Saturday, F&M finishes its season just one game out of first place in the Centennial Conference regular season standings. Johns Hopkins, despite being swept by the Diplomats during the first week of the season, took home the conference title and automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Blue Jays closed their season with 10 straight to go 11-3 in Centennial Conference action.