March 27, 2007

Box Score

WESTMINSTER, MD- Behind 19 hits, three of which were home runs, the Johns Hopkins baseball team rolled past McDaniel College in the Centennial opener for both squads. The Blue Jays (11-3, 1-0) have now won seven of their last eight contests.

Hopkins, ranked #19 in this week's ABCA poll, jumped on McDaniel starter Jimmy Thompson for two runs in the top of the first. With one out Brett Izzo and Rob Sanzillo lashed back to back singles and Rob Pietroforte doubled to left field to drive them home.

The score remained that way until the top of the fourth inning as the Blue Jays offense got things going. The first four batters of the inning reached for the Jays as Lee Bolyard had an RBI double and Tony Margve and Matt Benchener pushed through RBI singles. With one out in the inning Jonas Fester had an RBI double to left center and Izzo connected on a sacrifice fly. The big hit of the inning came off the bat of Sanzillo as he drilled a home run to right field to score two.

McDaniel reached Blue Jay starter Joe Zaccaria for its first two runs of the game in the bottom of the fourth. Zach Croft tripled to center field to drive in the two Green Terror runs. Hopkins got those two back in the top of the fifth as Margve hit his first home run of the year to drive in two.

McDaniel got two more in the bottom of the fifth to make it a 10-4 after five innings of play. The Blue Jays got another run in the top of the sixth as Sanzillo connected on his second round tripper of the game, again going over the right field fence.

McDaniel reached Zaccaria for four runs in the bottom of the seventh to make it an 11-8 ballgame. The Blue Jay offense responded once again. Fester reached on an error to start the inning and advanced to third on a stolen base. Sanzillo connected on his fourth hit of the game to score Fester. Pietroforte then tripled down the right field line to score Sanzillo. Ian Christie singled to score Pietroforte and came around to score on a Margve single. Margve completed the Blue Jay scoring in the inning as he crossed the plate on Benchener's double.

Zaccaria improved to 3-0 on the year as he threw six and two thirds of an inning, striking out eight. Thompson took the loss for McDaniel after going four innings and surrendering eight runs.

Sanzillo was 4-for-5 at the plate with four runs scored and four RBIs, he homered twice in the game. Benchener was 4-for-5 in the contest with three doubles, two RBIs and a run scored. Margve was 3-for-5 with a home run, four RBIs and three runs scored. Pietroforte was 2-for-5 with a double, a triple and three RBIs.

Hopkins is back in action on Friday, March 30th when it hosts McDaniel at 3:30 p.m.

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