May 5, 2004

Box Score

YORK, Pa. -- Junior centerfielder Paul Winterling (Glenelg, MD/McDonogh) went 4-for-5 with four RBIs and two runs scored and belted his team-leading 10th home run of the season to lead the top-ranked Johns Hopkins baseball team to a 14-3 victory over York (PA) Wednesday afternoon. The win is the school-record 37th of the season for the Blue Jays (37-1). The previous school record for wins in a season was 36 (set originally in 1998 and matched by this year's team with the 17-9 win over Franklin & Marshall in the Centennial title game on Sunday afternoon). York slips to 27-15.

After the teams traded runs in the fourth -- JHU's run came on Mike Spiciarich's fourth home run of the season (all of which have come in the last three games) -- the Blue Jays took the lead for good with three runs in the fifth and five more in the sixth.

The Blue Jays scored all three of their runs in the fifth after the first two outs were recorded. Winterling singled and Craig Cetta (Randolph, NJ/Randolph) reached on an error, setting the stage for junior Eric Nigro's (Randolph, NJ/Taft Prep) fifth home run of the year to push JHU's lead to 4-1.

York answered with a run in the bottom of the fifth as Steve Korkowski singled and came around to score on a ground out. That would be as close as the Spartans would get.

Centennial Conference Player of the Year Tim Casale (West Hempstead, NY/Chaminade) laced a one-out, two-run double in the sixth to plate Sven Stafford (Evanston, IL/Evanston) and Corey Gleason (Binghamton, NY/Binghamton), who had opened the inning with back-to-back walks, to quickly push the lead to 6-1 in the bottom of the sixth. Casale then stole third base and scored on an RBI-single by senior Rob Morrison (Malibu, CA/Loyola) before Winterling capped the inning with a two-run home run to make it 9-2.

Winterling added a two-run single in the eighth, which plated senior catcher Doug Hitchner (Haverford, PA/Episcopal Academy) and Morrison, while Cetta's two-run double highlighted a three-run ninth that closed the scoring for the Blue Jays.

Junior Ryan McConnell (Lancaster, PA/Penn Manor) improved to 7-0 on the year with a solid eight-inning performance for the Blue Jays on the mound. He allowed seven hits and two runs before giving way to sophomore Andrew Bail (Chicago, IL/Latin School), who allowed two hits and one run before closing the door in the ninth.

Winterling reached a pair of milestones in the victory as he collected career hit number 100 and became the first player in school history to hit 10 home runs in two season (he hit a career-high 12 in 2003).

Casale, Morrison, Cetta, Nigro and Gleason all collected two hits as the Blue Jays pounded out 18 hits in the win. JHU has now scored 49 runs and amassed 54 hits in its last three games.

York got two hits from Jeff Moore, Andy Puglisi and Jeff Young, but the Spartans never threatened after the Blue Jays took the 9-2 lead after six innings.