Baseball dominates, goes 4-0 against CC

This past Thursday, the Hopkins baseball team traveled to Westminster, MD, to take on McDaniel for the second time this season. Beating the Green Terror in their previous meeting, the Jays were looking to complete the season sweep. In a dramatic and thrilling ninthinning finish, the Blue Jays did just that. Senior pitcher Sam Eagleson was on the bump for the Blue Jays when the squad jumped out to an early lead. Sophomore outfielder Mike Denlinger got things started for the Jays with a sacrifice fly in the first inning to score junior infielder Kyle Neverman. The Jays tacked on three more in the second en rout an early 4-0 lead over the Green Terror. Despite getting down early the opposition did not go passively away. McDaniel scored a total of five runs in the third inning to take the lead. Yet, the Blue Jays would a n s w e r e d back by tacking on two more runs in the later innings on behalf of a sacrifice fly by junior infielder Adam Weiner and a double by senior catcher Aaron Borenstein. The seesaw type game did not end here - the Green Terror once again answered and scored two runs in the eighth to battle back and take a seven to six lead. The Blue Jays were thus down to their last two outs in the ninth inning and down a run. Junior Jared Frydman commented on the outlook going into the last inning. "We had to flip the switch. It was now or never." Junior infielder and Sports Editor Mike Kanen led the comeback, drawing a one out walk and senior Aaron Borenstein singled to left field to put two runners on base. After the bases were loaded with another single, sophomore first baseman/outfielder Richie Carbone launched a double to plate the tying and the go ahead runs. The Blue Jays then tacked on more runs to exit the inning with a huge 13-7 lead. Senior closer Aaron Schwartz shut the door in the ninth, meanwhile, picking up his third win of the season. After the trying series against McDaniel, the Blue Jays were back on the field this past Saturday to take on Swarthmore in a double-header at Homewood field. In the first game, Senior ace pitcher Alex Eliopoulos was on the hill for the Blue Jays. Eliopoulos was dominant in his outing, going eight strong innings and striking out seven while yielding only three runs. Eliopoulos once again gave head coach Bob Babb a strong outing. The senior has been a rock all season long for the Blue Jays and one of the biggest reasons for the team's success. The Blue Jays were ahead in the game for much of the afternoon but the Garnet came back in the sixth and seventh innings to tie the game, scoring one in the sixth and two in the seventh. The Blue Jays answered back scoring three runs in the bottom of the inning. After Neverman led off with a double the hits became contagious. With the lead at 6-3, the Blue Jays did not look back. Senior closer Aaron Schwartz came into the ninth inning and retired the Garnet one-two-three to end the first game. In the second game, sophomore pitcher Tyler Goldstein took the mound for the Blue Jays. The game was close through the first four innings, with the Jays leading 3-1, but then in the fifth the Hopkins offense came alive pouring on seven runs. The bases were loaded for Carbone when he delivered with a double down the left field line to plate Junior first b a s e m a n Jeff Lynch and Bor e n s t e i n . D e n l i n g e r then came to the plate and took the pitcher deep on the first pitch he saw. This was the third Blue Jay home run in the game and put the Jays up 10-1. The game finished with a score of 13-3 as the Blue Jays completed a commanding sweep of Swarthmore. The Jays offense ignited this past weekend on behalf of some outstanding individual performances. Lynch went 6-8 on the day with four RBIs. Delinger, Kanen and Neverman also had four RBIs on the day. The Blue Jays traveled to Gettysburg, PA, to take on the Bullets on Tuesday. Eagleson was dominant on the bump in the early going for Hopkins, taking a no-hitter into the fifth inning. However, in the fifth, the Bullets were able to plate a run and take the lead. In the top of the sixth, the Blue Jays came right back scoring three runs to take the lead. Kanen hit a homerun, his team-leading fourth of the season, to propel the offense in the inning. Kanen's play earned him the Centennial Conference Player of the Week Award. Going into the seventh, the Blue Jays tacked on four more runs to take a comfortable lead over the Bullets. The Jays never looked back, scoring at least two runs in each of the final four innings of play. Once again, senior Aaron Schwartz came in to close the door on the Bullets, but this time he went the final two innings. Schwartz's performance this last week in multiple games earned him the honor of DIII Baseball Relief Pitcher of the Week. The Blue Jays won their fifth straight game and will complete regular season play with the Bullets on Friday at Hopkins.