GETTYSBURG, PA – The Johns Hopkins baseball team faced off against Gettysburg in its final road game of the regular season Friday afternoon, tallying 13 hits and a season-best 14 walks in a 13-4 win over the Bullets. The victory moves the Blue Jays to 15-1 in Centennial Conference play, locking them in as the top seed in the upcoming Centennial Conference Tournament for the second straight season.
Like the first meeting between the teams earlier this week, it was Gettysburg (15-23, 4-12 Centennial) taking an early lead after scoring a trio of runs in the second inning before Hopkins (28-8, 15-1 Centennial) scored six runs on four hits in the third to take control.
Dylan Whitney opened the inning with a double to right center, scoring on the ensuing at bat after
Alex Shane hit a single back to the Bullets' pitcher. A walk drawn by
Shawn Steuerer put two on with nobody out before a Gettysburg error on a hard-hit ball by
Dillon Souvignier scored the sophomore to cut the lead to one.
A sacrifice fly off the bat of
Jacob Harris then leveled the game, with a
Seif Ingram single back up the middle bringing in two more runs after
Jimmy Stevens drew his first of three walks on the afternoon to load the bases. The Jays' sixth and final run of the inning came via Shane, who on his second at-bat of the frame was hit by a pitch to score Stevens and put Hopkins in front 6-3.
Cole Eggleston entered the game in relief and retired the side in a perfect bottom of the third, setting up the Blue Jays to balloon their lead to six with another crooked number in the fourth inning.
Souvignier registered his first base knock of the afternoon to kick things off, with singles from Harris and Cooper loading the bases with just one out. Showing their patience against a young Bullets bullpen, Stevens and Ingram drew RBI walks before Whitney's sac fly made it 9-3 just under halfway through the contest.
After three scoreless innings the sides traded runs in the eighth on a Shane RBI sac fly and double from the Bullets' Robert Murphy, before another three-piece for Hopkins in the ninth put the game out of reach.
Dipping into their bench, the Blue Jays got an RBI single from
Jackson Roloff — the junior's second of the season — and 2-RBI single down the right field line off the bat of
Clay Hartje to give themselves their largest lead of the game at nine.
Returning to the mound to close out the game was
Nicolas Jos, who retired Gettysburg's batters in order to secure his first save of the year and Hopkins the 13-4 win and top seed in next weekend's conference tournament.
The Blue Jays are back in action tomorrow to host Franklin & Marshall in their regular season finale. First pitch of the doubleheader is at 12 p.m., with Hopkins set to honor its graduating seniors prior to the start of Game 1.
Inside the Box Score — Johns Hopkins:
• Eggleston earned his second win of the season after allowing three hits and fanning three in a season-high four shutout innings. Making his fourth appearance in a Centennial Conference game, the graduate student's conference ERA now sits at just 1.29 over seven innings.
• Souvignier (2-5), Whitney (2-3) and Cooper (2-2) all registered multiple hits in the win. Souvignier and Cooper shared the team-lead in runs with three while Whitney hit one of just two extra-base hits the Blue Jays had in the contest.
• Shane and Ingram ended with a game-high three RBIs each. The sophomore also extended his hitting streak to 14 while Ingram has now tallied at least three RBIs in three of his last seven games.
• With their 13 runs in Friday's contest, Hopkins extended its streak of games in which they have reached double digits in scoring to eight, averaging 13.3 runs per game in that stretch.
