BALTIMORE, MD – Sophomore
Grant Meert struck out the final two Swarthmore batters of the game with Johns Hopkins nursing a one-run lead and a Garnet runner on first in the top of the ninth inning to help the top-ranked and top-seeded Blue Jays advance to the Centennial Conference title game with a 5-4 victory at Babb Field Saturday afternoon.
The Blue Jays (38-3), who led 5-1 after six innings, will play the winner of the Haverford-Swarthmore elimination game in Sunday's championship game. The winner of the Haverford-Swarthmore game will need to beat the Blue Jays twice on Sunday to win the title, while Johns Hopkins grabs its 19
th Centennial title with just one win on Sunday.
The Garnet scratched out a run in the top of the first as they parlayed a one-out single with a Blue Jay error and back-to-back walks to push across the game-opening run off Blue Jay starter
Drew Grumbles.
After going down in order in the bottom of the first, the Blue Jays touched Swarthmore starter
Liam Alpern for two runs in the second to grab a 2-1 lead.
Caleb Cyr and
Jimmy Stevens bookended a walk and a single around the first out of the inning and both advanced a base on an Alpern wild pitch before
Jacob Harris ripped one off the netting in the right field for a two-run triple that gave the Blue Jays the one-run lead.
The 2-1 lead held until the bottom of the fourth, when the Blue Jays loaded the bases with nobody out on a Harris walk and back-to-back
Clay Hartje and
Jake Siani singles. Alpern then surrendered a
Dylan Whitney sacrifice fly that scored Harris, but he struck out
Alex Shane and got
Shawn Steuerer to fly out to right to work himself out of the jam.
Alpern continued his dance with fire an inning later, but again managed to get himself out of trouble. A Cyr double and a
Dillon Souvignier walk put two on with nobody out and they were at second and third after a wild pitch, but Alpern induced a ground out, pop up and then struck out Hartje to end the threat and keep it 3-1.
Steuerer, already a fixture in the Blue Jay record book, checked off yet another box in the bottom of the sixth with a two-out, two-run home run that also scored
Alex Shane, who had reached on a single. The two RBIs pushed Steuerer's career total to an even 200, which makes him the first player in Johns Hopkins and Centennial Conference history to ring up 200 career runs scored and 200 RBIs.
Steuerer's two-run home run in the sixth was even more important a half inning later, when the Garnet pushed across a run without the benefit of a hit and left the bases loaded. After
Nathaniel Kittredge walked and Grumbles was removed, the Garnet collected three more free passes – one on a walk and two more on hit batters – to scratch out a run. With the bases loaded, Blue Jay reliever
Thomas Cancian got
Zac Kahn to line out to Siani in center to end the threat.
The Blue Jays threatened again in the bottom of the seventh as they worked a two-on, one-out situation against Swarthmore relievers
Peter Frometa and
Alexander Rimerman, but Rimerman was able to escape the inning and keep it a three-run game.
The Garnet touched Cancian for two quick runs in the top of the eighth as an inning-opening walk from
Ben Buchman was followed by a two-run
Matt Roffwarg home run to left field. Cancian was able to work out of the inning without further damage, but not without the help of two great defensive plays behind him. Harris chased down a Kittredge line drive down the line in left and the Blue Jays cut down
Leo Kedar at third after he tried to stretch a double to left center into a triple. Siani nearly made a diving catch at the wall, but he came up firing to Whitney, whose relay throw to Steuerer at third just beat Kedar for the third out of the inning.
An inning later, Meert came on and gave up a one-out infield single to Aidan Sullivan before recording the back-to-back game-ending strikeouts to seal the win.
Notes
• After allowing the unearned first-inning run, Grumbles went 6.2 innings and allowed two runs (one earned), just four hits and struck out two while walking four to pick up the win and improve to 8-0 on the year.
• Steven and Harris led Hopkins' nine-hit attack with two hits apiece, while Kedar and Roffwarg combined for four of Swarthmore's seven hits in the game.
• The Blue Jays advance to championship Sunday for the third consecutive year and the 18
th time in program history.
- 30 -
