The Muhlenberg baseball team came back from an early 5-1 deficit to tie Dickinson, 6-6, in a rain-shortened game, putting an unexpected turn into the tight Centennial Conference playoff race.

The Mules (15-16-1, 8-7-1) slipped into fifth place with the tie, behind Johns Hopkins and McDaniel (both 8-7), but are still very much alive in the playoff picture. Muhlenberg plays Hopkins in a doubleheader tomorrow, while McDaniel has a doubleheader against Ursinus (7-9) before playing a makeup game against first-place Gettysburg on Sunday. A sweep vs. Hopkins puts the Mules in the playoffs for certain, while a split combined with other results could clinch a berth.

Muhlenberg's comeback tie was powered by its battery of freshman Troy Elias and senior Brett Rosen. Elias relieved in the second inning and allowed only three hits and one run while striking out six in his six-inning stint. Rosen (pictured at left) belted a two-run homer with one out in the top of the seventh to tie the game, which was called after the bottom of the inning.

Freshman John Icaza was 3-for-4 and had the biggest hit of the game before Rosen's blast. After the Red Devils (20-11-1, 6-8-1) scored five runs in the bottom of the first, Icaza got the Mules right back in the game with a two-run double in the second.

In the fourth, Icaza led off with a single and scored on a sacrifice fly to make it 6-4.