CARLISLE, Pa. – With stellar performances from Nick DeFeo and Nolan Graber, the Ursinus College baseball team earned its first sweep of the season at Dickinson on Saturday. DeFeo and Graber gave up a combined two runs on 10 hits and struck out nine in 5-1 and 2-1 wins.
In game one, it was DeFeo who owned the mound. The senior pitched seven innings, giving up just four hits to the Devil bats. In the second side of the doubleheader it was fellow senior, Graber, who allowed one run in six innings.
Game 1
Ursinus (4-5, 4-4) took no time getting on the board to start Saturday's doubleheader. The Bears took advantage of an early error in the Red Devils outfield as Will Peiffer got on base and then stole second to get into scoring position. Tom Snipes brought him home with a RBI double to take a 1-0 lead.
The Bears kept it going in the second inning. Freshman Colby Chan led off with a triple to right-center and Tom Jacobs followed it up with a single down the right-field line to bring him home and put the Bears up 2-0.
The Red Devils answered in the third, but it's all they would get. DeFeo settled in and allowed just two baserunners after the run scored, both of which reached due to errors in the outfield. The senior pitcher went 1-2-3 in the fourth with back-to-back strikeouts and ended the sixth with another swinging strikeout.
Ursinus added to its lead in the sixth inning, taking advantage of Dickinson miscues. Chan led off the inning with a single and then Jacobs reached on an error to put a pair of runners on the bases. With two outs, Peiffer singled to right field to bring in Chan. Looking to steal to get into scoring position, Peiffer took off from first and an errant throw by the catcher allowed Chan to advance and score to extend the lead to 4-1.
Peiffer notched his second RBI of the game in the eighth inning to put the Bears up by a comfortable 5-1 margin. The Red Devils threatened in the eighth and ninth, but a throw from Jacobs to Jared Minnichbach caught a runner trying to steal third. Dickinson put runners on second and third in the bottom of the ninth, but a pop-out to second and fly-out to right field secured game one as Casey Fitzsimmons came on to close the door over the final two innings.
Game 2
Game two of Sunday's doubleheader was a rare low-scoring game for the Bears, who have scored five or more runs in five games this season and scored more than three runs in all but one contest. The last time that the Bears won a Centennial Conference game while scoring less than three runs was against Haverford in 2018, and Ursinus hadn't done it against Dickinson since 2015.
The Bears needed solid pitching on Saturday and that's exactly what they got. The Red Devils got into scoring position seven different times in game two of the doubleheader but scored on just one of those opportunities.
The Red Devils had a runner on third in the second inning, but a ground-out to Graber retired the side. With two outs in the third and a runner on second, Graber got the batter swinging to get out of the inning with just one run scored. Graber faced trouble in the sixth with a runner on third but forced a ground-out and made the play at first to keep it a two-run game for the Bears.
On the other end, the Ursinus bats did just enough. Similar to game one, the Bears took advantage of an early error in the outfield as Matteo Falcone got on base. Falcone stole second and then a single to left field from Nick Diaz brought him in to score. The Bears added an insurance run in the sixth with Dan Icaza scoring on a wild pitch.
Looking to close things out, James Schuld entered the game to pitch. The Red Devils led off with a single in the bottom of the ninth and advanced the runner to second. With the winning run at first after a walk, Drew Hartman entered to close and got the job done, punctuating the sweep with a strikeout.