• Score: Johns Hopkins - 4, Catholic - 13
• Records: JHU (10-9) • CUA (16-6)
• Pitching Decision: W: Bosak (1-1) • L – Tarantino (1-1)
• The Short Story: In the first game back from Florida, Johns Hopkins dropped the final non-conference tilt of the season to Catholic, 13-4, on Wednesday night.
How it Happened
• The Cardinals pushed a run across against Jays starter
Reed Bolin in the top of the second inning. Bolin retired the first two batters of the inning before issuing a walk to Matthew Fisher. Tommy Antonucci singled to short, putting a pair of runners on with two away. Derek Zelesnick singled out of the nine-spot to put Catholic ahead.
• In the bottom of the inning, Blue Jay freshman
Shawn Steuerer crushed a 3-2 pitch to right-center, leaving the yard to tie the contest at 1-1 with his third homer of the season.
• The Blue Jay bats went silent while the Cardinals added a run in the fourth and three in the fifth. Against
Jack Tarantino in the fourth, Fisher crushed a ball to left-center to give Catholic a 2-1 lead with a solo shot. In the fifth an error caused the inning to spiral a bit. With
Trevor Davis pitching, Catholic drew a leadoff walk and made it first and third with a single. Zach Burton singled up the middle to make it 3-1. Ben Nardi bounced one to third, but a bad throw from Steuerer allowed a run to score and took away a chance at a potential double play. The Cardinals would add two more runs on fielder's choices in the inning to take a 5-1 lead.
• Catholic tacked on four more in the eighth inning as
Justin Nam loaded the bases, forcing
Matt Savedoff into the game. Savedoff struck out the first two batters before allowing a single and a bases-clearing double to Matt Tesoriero as the Cardinals took a 9-1 lead.
• The lone source of run production on the day, Steuerer hit a three-run bomb in the bottom of the eighth, scoring
Sam Frank and
AJ King to cut it to 9-4.
• Catholic added four more in the ninth for a 13-4 victory.
Inside the Box Score
•
Matthew Cooper, King and Steuerer combined for six of the team's seven hits while Steuerer drove in all four runs.
• King leads the way with a .386 batting average for Hopkins while Steuerer is second on the team at .368, now with four homers and 12 RBI. The freshman leads the team with 44 total bases this season.
• Tarantino struck out five in relief for his second straight appearance, giving him 16 strikeouts in 12.1 innings this year.
• The Jays end non-conference play at 10-9 with the Centennial slate opening this weekend.
What's Next
• Johns Hopkins and Ursinus will faceoff on Saturday to open up the Centennial season. First pitch is set for 1 pm at Babb Field.
