BEVERLY, MA – The Johns Hopkins baseball team was on the road for the first time this postseason to take on top-ranked Endicott in Game 1 of its NCAA Tournament Super Regional series against the Gulls, tying things late before ultimately falling 7-5 after 10 hard-fought innings.
There was nothing to separate the sides early on in a game that had the atmosphere of a College World Series matchup, with the Gulls narrowly outhitting the Blue Jays 3-1 through three innings before it was Hopkins breaking through with a three-run fourth.
Alex Shane led off the inning with a hard-hit double down the left field line — Hopkins' first leadoff hit of the afternoon — to bring the
Shawn Steuerer to the plate. The only other Blue Jay to register a hit on the afternoon, Steuerer swung at the first pitch he saw and launched a no-doubter to left center field to put Hopkins up two.
Caleb Cyr started another rally in the fourth after taking one off the leg, advancing to second on a fielder's before
Matthew Cooper drew a walk to load the bases and bring
Jimmy Stevens up to bat. After hitting a long fly ball to center in his first at-bat, the senior showed patience in the rematch against Endicott's Jordan Gottesman, earning a free 90 to bring home Cyr and make it 3-0.
The Gulls stole back a run in both the fifth and sixth innings to make it a one-run game halfway through the sixth, but in the bottom of the inning it was
Isaiah Winikur and Stevens striking again to extend the Blue Jays' lead back to two. Winikur kicked things off with a one-out double before advancing to second on a fly ball from Cooper. On the next at bat it was Stevens roping one to left center that took a hop over the fence to score Winikur and build the lead to 4-2.
Things would quickly turn to the Gulls' favor just a half inning later where after two singles out a pair of runners on, Nicolas Notarangelo hit a ball to dead center that just snuck over the fence to give Endicott its first lead of the afternoon at 5-4.
Unwilling to go down, Winikur extended his home-run streak to three games with a solo shot to left to level things at five after eight.
Kieren Collins returned for his ninth inning on the mound and made quick work of Endicott's batters to give the Blue Jays a chance to walk things off, but Hopkins couldn't plate a run and the game headed into extras.
A two-run shot in the ninth gave Endicott a 7-5 lead, with Hopkins going down in order in the bottom half of the inning to bring Game 1 to a close.
The Blue Jays are back tomorrow to take on the Gulls in a must-win Game 2, with first pitch scheduled for 11 a.m. Should Hopkins force a third game it will be played 45 minutes after the completion of Saturday's first contest.
Inside the Box Score – Johns Hopkins
• Collins was incredible on the mound in what could go down as one of the best games of his career. The graduate student tossed 130 pitchers over a career-high nine innings, allowing five runs on eight hits and fanning five, retiring the final seven batters he faced to give Hopkins a chance to walk the game off.
• Steuerer's home run was his seventh in as many games, setting a new career-high mark of 17 in 2024. The junior also carries a 13-game hitting streak into tomorrow, having tallied a hit in 24 of his last 25 games.
• Winikur also boasts a home run streak after his solo shot in the eighth inning, having hit one over the fence in three straight games. The graduate student has gone 2-4 at the plate in each of those games and has now registered a hit in every game this postseason.
• Shane and Stevens were the remaining Blue Jays to tally a hit in the loss, going 1-5 and 1-3 respectively. Shane also scored a run on Steuerer's homer, while Stevens was tied for the team-high with two RBIs.
