March 4, 2012

Box Score

BALTIMORE, MD - The #22 Johns Hopkins baseball team battled back from a 2-0 deficit going into the eighth inning to come back to a 5-4 victory over Rutgers-Newark for its first win of the 2012 season. The Blue Jays move to 1-1-1 on the season while the Scarlet Raiders fall to 2-4.

After giving up a two-out two-run double in the top of the fourth, senior righthander Alex Eliopoulos cruised through the next three frames, facing just two batters over the minimum into the eighth inning. Senior Blake Platt came out in relief of Eliopoulos and set the Scarlet Raiders down in order in the top of the eighth, closing out the inning with back-to-back strikeouts.

After evening the count at 2-2 to open the home half of the eighth, junior Kyle Neverman found a pitch he liked and sent the ball over the right center fence for the Blue Jays' fifth hit and first run of the game. Junior Mike Kanen worked an eight-pitch at bat and ripped the ball up the middle and chased Rutgers-Newark's starting pitcher, Kyle Van Vliet from the game. After RNU's relief pitcher Matt Larangera got two outs on two pitches, the wheels began to fall off for the Scarlet Raiders. Junior Ryan Zakszeski took a pitch in the back to put two runners on. Classmate Chris Wilhelm reached on an infield single to third and pinch-runner junior Adam Weiner was able to score from second on a throwing error by the third baseman. Zakszeski moved to third on the error to put runners on the corners before junior Matt Ricci wore the third pitch he saw to load the bases again. Zakszeski came around to score on a passed ball to give the Blue Jays their first lead of the game, 3-2. Senior Mike Musary worked a five-pitch walk to load the bases for the third time in the inning.

Once again, Rutgers-Newark went to its bullpen and brought in Nick Evans to try to get the last out of the inning and keep the score close. Junior Chris Vonderschmidt worked a 1-2 count against the new pitcher and sent the ball into the gap in right center to plate Ricci and Wilhelm and give the Blue Jays a 5-2 lead going into the final frame.

Senior closer Aaron Schwartz came in for the Blue Jays to close out the game and help JHU to its first win of the season. Schwarz caught the first batter of the frame looking before Vin Troisi walked on five pitches. Jimmy Napolitano accounted for all of the Scarlet Raiders' runs in the game with a two-run home run to right field to pull RNU within in a run, 5-4. Schwartz was able to get the next batter to ground out softly to first before ringing up the last batter of the game, getting Chris Ballester to chase a 1-2 pitch. Schwartz earned the save as the Blue Jays went on to win, 5-4.

Platt earned the win for the Blue Jays throwing just one inning, striking out 2 while facing the minimum number of batters. Eliopoulos threw a solid seven innings, striking out eight while giving up two runs on five hits and three walks in the no-decision. Larangera took the loss for Rutgers-Newark, pitching just two-thirds of an inning, giving up three runs on one hit and a walk while hitting two batters.

Neverman and Kanen led the way for the Blue Jays, each collecting two hits while Neverman and Vonderschmidt each collected RBIs.

The Blue Jays return to the diamond when they travel to Glassboro, NJ on March 6 to face Rowan. The first pitch is scheduled for 3 pm.