April 10, 2011

Box Score

SWARTHMORE, PA - The 24th-ranked Johns Hopkins baseball team dropped a pair of road contests at Swarthmore in Centennial Conference action on Sunday afternoon. The Garnet downed the Blue Jays by scores of 2-0 and 9-4 to improve to 15-8 (6-3 CC), while JHU falls to 13-10 (6-3 CC) and into a third-place tie in the conference standings with Swarthmore and Washington College.

Hopkins outhit the Garnet (8-4) in the seven-inning opening game of the doubleheader, but stranded 12 baserunners throughout the contest, including leaving the bases loaded in top half of the seventh.

Junior Ignacio Rodriguez (4-1) pitched 6.1 shutout innings to pick up his fourth victory of the year for the Garnet, while sophomore Ramsey Walker secured his fifth save of the season after entering with one out in the seventh. Graduate student Matt Wiegand (3-1) takes the loss for JHU. Wiegand allowed just four hits and two runs in his six innings on the mound.

Graduate student Joe Borrelli led Hopkins at the plate in game one with a 3-for-4 performance, while sophomore Zach Small went 2-for-3 in the loss.

The scoring woes continued for the Blue Jays in game two, until they were finally able to break through on Swarthmore junior starter Kyle Crawford in the sixth frame. Trailing 8-0 heading into the sixth, JHU put two runs on the board in the inning to pull within 8-2.

Sophomore Kyle Neverman reached first after being hit by a pitch to leadoff the inning, before Borrelli and senior Jesse Sikorski registered back-to-back singles, with Sikorski's knocking in Neverman from second for the first JHU run of the day. Small recorded an RBI single two batters later to pull Hopkins within six of the Garnet.

Hopkins would cut the Swarthmore advantage to 8-3 in the top of the seventh after an RBI single down the left field line by sophomore Chris Wilhelm brought home junior Sam Wernick, but the Blue Jays were unable to mount a comeback and eventually fell, 9-4.

Crawford (2-1) tallied three strikeouts while allowing three runs on six hits in seven full innings on the mound. Seniors James Bernard and Adam Koshkin and Walker closed out the win on the mound for the Garnet. Junior Alex Eliopoulos falls to 4-2 on the year with the loss for JHU.

Small, Sikorski and Wilhelm each recorded RBIs in game two for JHU, while sophomore Ryan Zakszeski and graduate student Steve Bejsiuk led the team in hits with two apiece in the nightcap.

JHU returns home on Monday, April 11 for a conference matchup against McDaniel. Game time is set for 3:30 pm at the JHU Baseball Diamond.