May 4, 2008

Box Score

BALTIMORE, MD - Trailing 4-1 heading to the bottom of the ninth, the #13 Johns Hopkins baseball team rallied for a 5-4 victory over Haverford in the Centennial Conference Championship game on Sunday afternoon. The Blue Jays (33-5) won their second straight Centennial Conference Championship and ninth overall. Hopkins earns the Centennial Conference's automatic qualifier for the NCAA Tournament with the win.

Hopkins trailed 4-1 heading to the bottom of the ninth and need a comeback victory to avoid having to play a second game. Senior catcher Tony Margve (Randolph, NJ/Randolph) was hit by a pitch leading off the frame and senior first baseman Matt Benchener (Newtown, PA/Holy Ghost Prep) crushed a ball over the right field fence to pull the Blue Jays to within one at 4-3. After the Fords got the first out of the inning, junior second baseman Dan Merzel (Hopkinton, MA/Hopkinton) singled to right field. With two outs in the inning, Merzel stole second and scored the tying run on an RBI single from senior left fielder Jon Solomon (Fairfax, VA/Riverdale Baptist). Solomon would come around to score the winning run as sophomore right fielder Brian Youchak (Pittsburgh, PA/Vincentian Academy) stroked a single to center field.

The Blue Jays found themselves trailing after the Fords were able to put three runs on the board in the top of the ninth, breaking a 1-1 tie. With one on, Steve Andelman hit a two-run home run to right field to give the Fords a 3-1 lead. Hopkins was able to get the first out of the inning before Will Stafford homered to left field for the 4-1 lead. Haverford loaded the bases and was looking for more. However, Dean Laganosky lined out to right field and the runner on third did not go back to tag and was thrown out, saving the Blue Jays from further damage.

The first eight innings of the contest had been a pitchers' duel as the two teams combined for just two runs early on. Haverford struck first in the contest as Drew Wilcox lead off the fourth inning with a single and came around to score of Stafford's RBI single.

Hopkins answered with a run of its own in the sixth inning. Senior shortstop Nate Adelman (Redwood City, CA/Menlo School) led off with a single and moved to third on Solomon's double down the right field line. Adelman would cross the plate on an RBI single from Youchak.

Sophomore Matt Wiegand (San Diego, CA/La Jolla) picked up his second victory of the season. Wiegand got the final two outs in the ninth inning as he allowed just an infield single. Senior Brian Duddie (San Diego, CA/Mt. Carmel) started on the hill for the Blue Jays and went 8.1 innings surrendering the four runs on nine hits with five strikeouts and one walk.

Charlie Carluccio took the loss for Haverford as he gave up two runs in a third of an inning. Ben Regan started for Haverford and went 8.2 innings and surrendered three runs on nine hits.

Youchak finished 2-for-4 with the two RBIs while Benchener was 1-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored. Merzel finished 2-for-3 with a run scored while Solomon was 2-for-5 with a run scored and an RBI. Pietroforte and Emr extended their hit streaks to 25 and 17 games, respectively with a hit apiece on the day.

Hopkins returns to action on Tuesday, May 6 when it wraps up the regular season by hosting Mary Washington at 2 p.m.

- 30 -