Education Day at Delta Dental Park at Hadlock Field was brought to you by the letter K, and the number 20.

In front of a ballpark full of students enjoying a field trip, a trio of Sea Dogs pitchers — Blake Wehunt, Patrick Halligan and Cooper Adams — combined to strike out 20 Reading Fightin Phils batters in a 1-0 win.

A quick lesson on keeping score of a baseball game. A strikeout is noted with the letter K, because in the 19th century, journalist Henry Chadwick developed the first baseball scorecard. Chadwick already used S for sacrifice, so he went with K for a strikeout, seeing how the letter ends the word struck. Chadwick’s system stuck, and now a K is synonymous with a strikeout.

It’s why fans hang Ks in ballparks throughout the world, and why each of Roger Clemens’ four sons has a first name that starts with K.

Chadwick would’ve loved all the Ks the Portland Sea Dogs pitchers put in the scorebook Thursday.

It’s a club record for strikeouts in a nine-inning game. The Sea Dogs struck out 23 in a game vs. Bowie on June 11, 2005, but that one went 14 innings.

Give Reading first baseman Austin Murr a special prize for being the only player in the Fightin Phils starting lineup to not strikeout. Murr had a pair of bunt singles, walked and grounded out to second base. Alex Binelas, who played for the Sea Dogs from 2022-24, struck out four times for Reading, as did Kehden Hettiger.

The Sea Dogs struck out the side in four innings. While it was a 1-0 win, it never felt like Reading threatened to score. The Fightin Phils had just two runners reach second base the entire game. You can’t generate a rally when everybody is walking from the batter’s box back to the dugout.

Wehunt started and went the first five innings. He began the game with a strikeout of Reading leadoff hitter Dante Nori, and struck out at least two hitters in each of his five innings. As it was happening. Wehunt knew guys weren’t making contact on him, but he also knew he couldn’t focus on that.

“I noticed I was getting ahead of a lot of guys and finishing them with the strikeout. Obviously I know in the back of my mind, but I try not to think about it,” he said.

Strikeouts are a big part of Wehunt’s game. With a fastball that tops out in the high 90s, Wehunt has averaged just over 14.58 strikeouts per nine innings this season. That fastball and his splitter were Wehunt’s best pitches Thursday, but he had command of everything he threw.

“You know, you don’t get many of those days in this game of baseball. When you do get them, you’ve just got to use them and compete as well as you can,” he said.

Halligan and Adams tend to strike out a lot of hitters, too, averaging 14 and 11.5 strikeouts per nine innings, respectively. Halligan pitched the sixth and seventh innings. He recorded six outs, all via strikeouts. The only inning Reading had more than one runner reach base was the sixth, when Raylin Heredia singled and Murr walked with two outs. Halligan struck out Hettiger looking to end the small threat.

“I think I threw a couple splitters before that. Then I threw a fastball low, froze him. I think he was expecting a splitter,” Halligan said.

If the pitchers weren’t thinking about all the strikeouts they were collecting, their pitching coach, Juan Rivera, certainly was. Rivera gave credit to catcher Nate Baez for calling the game, and to the pitchers for executing what Baez wanted.

“Once Halligan got through his two innings, and I knew Cooper was coming in, I looked at Isaiah (Page, assistant pitching coach) and said ‘Hey we’re three away from 20. We’ve got to get this,'” Rivera said.

The old record was 17. Adams broke that by getting Aroon Escobar to check his swing for strike three for the second out of the eighth. Binelas struck out to end the inning and get the Sea Dogs to 19 entering the ninth.

With two outs in the ninth, Adams froze Hettiger with a curveball to get him looking for the 20th strikeout.

“My approach was, that’s my best pitch. I’m going to throw it to him and make him see if he can try to hit it,” Adams said.

More often than not Thursday, they couldn’t hit it. The Ks had it. Henry Chadwick’s shorthand ruled the day.