March 21, 2014

Box Score

FT. MYTERS, FL - Hopkins finished with 20-plus hits for the second straight game, as the team cruised to its sixth straight victory over Bethel (MN) 12-2 Friday morning. Junior Colin McCarthy notched his second career four-hit game in the victory, finishing with two runs and two RBIs. Seniors Richie Carbone and Jonathan Hettleman both racked up three RBIs a piece on three hits each, while fellow seniors Mike Denlinger and John Maxwell combined for six runs. Hopkins improves to 11-2 on the season with the win, while Bethel drops to 8-4 with the defeat.

The Royals struck first in the contest at Terry Park, using a pair of leadoff singles to get runners on with no outs in the bottom of the first. Junior RHP Jacob Enterlin struck out the next batter, but a run crossed the plate on a groundout to the shortstop on the ensuing play. Another groundout to third ended the inning, and the Royals took the field with an early 1-0 lead.

From the second inning on, it was all Hopkins as the Jays racked up 12 unanswered runs to pull away from the Royals. Junior Craig Hoelzer notched his second RBI of the year slicing a single through the right side to score Hettleman from second base in the top of the second.

After Enterlin retired the side in the bottom of the inning, The Jays opened up the top of the third with two singles and a walk before scoring three runs to take a 4-1 lead. Three straight hits to start the fourth inning led to two more runs for Hopkins, as Bethel failed to keep pace with the surging Blue Jay offense at the plate.

Hopkins added three runs in the sixth and batted through the order in the seventh to pad six more runs onto the lead and fend off the Royals. Enterlin finished with four strikeouts in 6.2 innings of work to earn his second win of the season, while junior Justin Drechsel struck out two in 2.1 innings of relief.

Hopkins will wrap up its spring trip in Ft. Myers tomorrow morning with a game against Plattsburgh State slated for 9:00 am.

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