April 2, 2011

Box Score

LANCASTER, PA - The 16th-ranked Johns Hopkins baseball team split a doubleheader at Franklin & Marshall on Saturday afternoon in Centennial Conference action. JHU fell in a low-scoring affair in game one, 3-2, before using a four-run ninth inning in the second contest to down the Diplomats, 10-6. The Blue Jays now sit at 11-7 (4-1 CC), while F&M moves to 11-11 (3-2 CC).

Game two was a see-saw battle that saw the Blue Jays nearly squander a four-run lead in the final three frames. After F&M took a 1-0 lead after three innings of play, Hopkins put together a big fourth to take a 3-1 edge.

Senior Jesse Sikorski led off the fourth with a walk, sophomore Kyle Neverman doubled to left center and graduate student Joe Borrelli also earned a free pass to first base to load the bases with nobody out. Sophomore Chris Wilhelm then came through with a two-RBI single to left field to knock in Sikorski and Neverman and give Hopkins its first lead at 2-1.

Junior Sam Wernick concluded the Blue Jay fourth-inning scoring with an RBI single to left that brought in Borrelli from second base.

In the top of the fifth Neverman would cross the plate for the second time - this time all on his own. The sophomore drew a walk and used his blazing speed on the base paths to steal both second and third base. An errant throw by the F&M catcher on his steal of third allowed Neverman to then cross the plate and give Hopkins a 4-1 lead.

After a scoreless sixth the Blue Jays added on another run in the top of the seventh, with Neverman rounding the bases yet again. Neverman reached first with an infield single to third base - once again with a fine display of speed out of the box - before Wilhelm delivered his third RBI of the game by blasting a double to the gap in left center.

The bottom of the seventh, however, was an inning JHU would soon like to forget as the Blue Jays allowed four F&M runners to cross the plate to knot the game at 5-5. F&M batted around in a lengthy half-inning in which the host Diplomats had only one batter put the ball into play. The Diplomats earned four walks, a hit by pitch and two catcher interference calls to notch their four runs in the frame and tie the contest heading into the eighth.

Junior Aaron Schwartz performed well on the mound in the seventh after entering the inning with the bases full and only one out. While two unearned runs crossed the plate after Schwartz took to the mound, the junior prevented what could have been a much worse outcome by striking out two batters for the final two outs of the frame.

In the eighth the Blue Jays would take a brief lead, 6-5, after junior Aaron Borenstein knocked home Wernick with a sacrifice fly to right field. F&M responded with a sacrifice fly of its own in the bottom half of the inning, as junior J.T. Triantos crossed home plate after a flyout to left by freshman Will Benenson.

Borrelli was the first Hopkins runner to reach base in the ninth after drawing his third walk of the game. Wilhelm followed with a single to left, before sophomore Zach Small came through in the clutch with a two-RBI triple to right field that gave JHU a 8-6 advantage. Freshman Mike Denlinger and Wernick each added on RBIs and the Blue Jays took a 10-6 lead into the bottom half of the ninth.

Schwartz recorded a 1-2-3 ninth to earn the win and move to 1-1 on the year. Junior Alex Eliopoulos struck out four while allowing three runs (one unearned) and seven hits in six innings on the mound. Senior Brendan McCreary took the loss for F&M to fall to 1-1.

Wilhelm led the way for Hopkins with a 3-for-5 outing with three RBIs and one run scored, Neverman went 2-for-4 and crossed home plate three times, while Wernick and Small each notched two RBIs in the victory.

Triantos went 3-for-4 with two runs scored for F&M, while Benenson notched three RBIs in the loss.

The Diplomats jumped on the board first in game one (a seven-inning contest) by notching a run in the bottom of the second after back-to-back hits by senior Russell Tischler and freshman Patrick Andrews.

The Blue Jays tallied runs in both the fifth and sixth innings to take a brief 2-1 advantage, but the lead wouldn't last long as F&M was able to record a run in both the sixth and seventh innings to snap a nine game losing skid to JHU, securing its first win over Hopkins since April 21, 2007.

Borrelli was a key component for both runs in the fifth and sixth innings. The graduate student led off the fifth with a single to left field, before advancing to second base on a passed ball. Fellow graduate student Steve Bejsiuk then singled up the middle to bring home Borrelli and tie the game at 1-1.

In the sixth Borrelli was on the other end of a Hopkins run as he again singled to left to bring in Borenstein from third and give JHU its first lead, 2-1.

The Diplomats answered back with a run in the bottom of the sixth to re-tie the game at 2-2.

Denlinger drilled a two-out double to left center in the top of the seventh, but JHU was unable to capitalize with a runner in scoring position and the game remained tied heading into the bottom half of the frame.

F&M loaded the bases with one out in the decisive bottom half of the seventh, forcing Hopkins to move to a five-man infield alignment in order to improve its chances of making a quality play at the plate with a potential infield grounder. However, the move was all for naught as Triantos ripped a line-drive single to right that allowed the winning run to touch home.

With the loss in game one JHU saw its 27-game conference regular season winning streak come to an end. The Blue Jays had last lost a Centennial regular season contest to Muhlenberg, 8-7, on April 18, 2009.

Borrelli went 3-for-3 with an RBI to lead the way for Hopkins in game one, while Triantos paced the Diplomats with a 2-for-4 outing with the game-winning hit and RBI.

Junior Sam Eagleson allowed eight hits with three strikeouts and three walks in the loss for JHU to drop to 2-1 on the year. F&M sophomore Brendan DeMond earned the win to move to 1-1. DeMond allowed six hits while striking out nine in the full seven innings.

Hopkins returns to Baltimore on Sunday, April 3 for its first home game in nearly a month. The Blue Jays will square off against Centennial Conference foe Dickinson at 1:30 pm on the Blue Jay Baseball Diamond.