LANCASTER, Pa. – The No. 2 seed Franklin & Marshall baseball team (25-15, 12-6 CC) came out on top of a back-and-forth battle against No. 3 seed Dickinson (22-17-1, 10-8 CC), 8-7, in Thursday afternoon's Centennial Conference Tournament game at Caplan Field.

Tied at 7-all in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Diplomats loaded the bases, bringing Evan Varga to the plate with no outs. Varga laced a base hit into the left center field gap - scoring Spencer Berson and securing the walk-off win over the Red Devils.

Franklin & Marshall trailed Dickinson 3-1 going into the bottom half of the sixth inning. Jakob Hoffman led off the frame with a single and was followed by Drew Butera getting hit by a pitch to get two runners on. Berson later moved both runners into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt. With two outs, Varga flared a single into shallow right field to bring two runs home and tie the game at 3-all.

Dickinson added a run in the top of the seventh, but F&M came right back in the bottom of the inning with an RBI-single through the left side of the infield by Drew Butera to make it a 4-4 game. The back-and-forth drama continued in the top of the eighth as the Red Devils ripped a three-run home run with two outs to take a 7-4 advantage in the contest.

In the bottom half of the eighth, Varga singled and AJ Desautels drew a walk to begin the inning. Tommy Denlinger slashed a single through the left side and advanced to second on the throw back into the infield as Varga scored - cutting the deficit to two runs. A wild pitch on the following at-bat scored Desautels and moved Denlinger up to third. The next batter, Hoffman, tied the game at 7-all as he brought home Denlinger on a sacrifice fly to deep center field.

Franklin & Marshall outhit Dickinson 11-9 in the contest. Varga led the Diplomats with three hits and three RBI in the win. Denlinger and Desautels each tallied two hits, while five different F&M players recorded an RBI in the victory.

Dan Galef (6-0) earned his sixth win of the season, striking out one of his two batters faced coming out of the bullpen in the top of the ninth. Kyle Roche pitched well in his final start at Caplan Field, striking out six and allowing four earned runs in 6.2 innings of work.

After the game, the Franklin & Marshall baseball team honored its eight seniors during a postgame ceremony. Those seniors included: Tommy Alexander, Grant Burgess, Carter Davis, Tommy Denlinger, Pat Elliott, Greg Nieskens, Kyle Roche, and Brooks Rush.

Franklin & Marshall heads to Baltimore, Maryland to take on No. 1 seed Johns Hopkins in the next round of the Centennial Conference Tournament Saturday at 12:30 p.m.