Strong season sends Plymouth Whitemarsh’s Dylan Robinson to Dickinson College

After his junior season, Plymouth Whitemarsh pitcher Dylan Robinson worked on throwing harder to get his fastball past varsity batters.

With an improved heater and a strong changeup, he came back with a senior season as the Colonials ace and recently decided to play college baseball at Dickinson College next year.

“I just had a lot of success in the school season,” Robinson said after throwing five innings for Whitemarsh in the Greater Norristown American Legion Baseball League championship game Tuesday evening. “I wasn’t really planning to play anywhere (in college) and just reached out to a bunch of coaches. (Dickinson’s coach) got back and said he’d be interested in having me out for a visit. I had a lot of success and I want to play more.”

The right-hander was a first team All-Suburban One League Liberty Division selection as a senior and earned honorable mention on The Reporter/Times Herald/Montgomery Media All-Area team. He finished the season with an 8-3 record and a 2.59 earned run average. In 11 starts, he struck out 39 batters to nine walks in 62 innings.

“Just throwing more strikes, locating,” Robinson credited for his senior season success, “making sure that I’m working on locating my pitches a lot. That’s really it.”

His success continued in the GNALBL this summer. In three regular season appearances, Robinson posted a 2.33 ERA in nine innings. He allowed three runs on six hits while striking out seven batters to four walks.

In the championship game against Perk Valley Tuesday, he allowed one earned run in five innings, but Whitemarsh lost, 3-2. Robinson struck out three batters to no walks and allowed three runs on 10 hits. He got out of jams most of the game – runner on third with one out in the first, runners on second and third with no outs in the second, bases loaded with no outs in the fifth – but couldn’t overcome four hits and two errors that led to three runs in the fourth.

The things he worked on last offseason showed in his strong outing. He had success with his fastball on the outside part of the plate and his changeup down in the zone against a strong Perk Valley lineup.

Robinson’s also gotten an opportunity to bat more during the legion season. He got two at-bats during the high school year with PW and went 0-for-2. During the GNALBL playoffs he was 5-for-6, including 3-for-3 with an RBI in the championship game.

“It’s really fun,” he said. “It’s like there are no expectations so I just go up there and swing the bat. A lot of these teams say, ‘throw it down the middle.’ I heard the coach say last game in my first at-bat, ‘throw it down the middle.’ Next thing you know – two-run single in the gap. I like batting at the bottom of the order because they don’t really care about you too much. Just hit it hard, hit the barrel and that’s it.”

Robinson’s going to continue working on getting stronger and improving his fastball before taking the field in Carlisle next spring.