For the first time in school history, the Johns Hopkins baseball team has been named number one in the American Baseball Coaches Association/Collegiate Baseball NCAA Division III Poll, which was released this past Monday. The Blue Jays who have won an unprecedented 19 games in a row, received 233 overall points and three first-place votes.
"It's a great feeling but we still aren't playing our best baseball yet," said junior third baseman, Michael Spiciarich. "We have made too many errors and we haven't hit as well as we can."
"Once everything comes together we will be unstoppable," said junior outfielder Paul Winterling.
The Blue Jays defended their undefeated record this past Tuesday, beating up on the Dickinson Red Devils. Sophomore righthander Jason Thayer, who was credited with the 10-3 victory, racked up five strikeouts in five innings, giving up eight hits and three earned runs. Senior Jeremy Brown and junior southpaw Jason Hochfelder were nearly unhittable in relief of Thayer, yielding no runs and striking out four batters combined to preserve the win.
Spiciarich opened the game with a triple, and later scored on a two-out double by junior first baseman Mike Durgala. The Devils answered back with three unanswered runs, but Hopkins slowly pulled away. After knotting the game at 3-3, senior catcher Doug Hitchner hit a two-run homerun in a third run inning to give the Jays the lead for good. A blast by Winterling, who leads the team in both homeruns and RBIs, closed the scoring for the evening. Sophomore infielder Corey Gleason went three-for-four with two runs scored and two RBIs on the day. The victory improved Hopkins' conference record to 5-0 this season.
Senior righthander Matt Righter, who was named Centennial Conference Pitcher of the Week on Monday, did not pitch in the Dickinson game due to his two long appearances the week before. Righter was 2-0 for the week, posting an ERA of 0.90. Righter allowed one run on two hits, while striking out six in three innings of relief, as the Jays edged Gettysburg, 5-3. He then threw a seven-inning complete game in a 4-3 nail biter over Ursinus, yielding no earned runs on eight hits with three strikeouts to bring his season total to 19. Righter has been unhittable this year; batters are hitting an abysmal .198 against the Blue Jays' ace.
Before the win over Dickinson, the Jays traveled north to battle the 20th ranked team in the nation, the College of New Jersey. Junior designated hitter Eric Nigro carried the Jays offensively, going three-for-four with two runs scored and one RBI. Hopkins scored all eight of its runs between the fifth and eight innings, after TCNJ jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth. Senior righthander Adam Josephart was credited with the win, allowing four runs and five hits over five and two-thirds innings. Sophomore lefty Andrew Bail, junior righthander Ryan McConnell and senior closer Sven Stafford combined to throw three and one third innings of one-hit relief to seal the victory.
The real story of the week, however, was a hard-fought doubleheader against Centennial Conference rival Ursinus this past Satruday. Senior shortstop Carl Ippolito smacked a game-winning homerun in the bottom of the seventh and final inning in the opener, while Durgala singled home senior Craig Cetta in the bottom of the seventh to pull out another dramatic victory in the second game. The two victories improved the Jays' overall record to 17-0, setting a new school record for wins to being a season. The previous high of 16 games was established in 1998.
Ursinus set the tone for this back-and-forth doubleheader, jumping out to an early lead in the top of the first. However, Hopkins immediately answered back after Durgala led off the second inning with a single and later scored on a two-run homerun by senior Brian Morley. The Hopkins lead lasted until the fourth inning when Ursinus' Ted Piotrowicz doubled home a runner, bringing the score to 3-2 in favor of the Bears.
After Cetta reached base on a walk, he scored on a double by Winterling, knotting the score at 3-3. Ippolito's seventh inning bomb over the left field fence --his first of the season -- turned out to be the difference in this one. Brown (4-0) was credited with the win.
The fireworks continued in the second game, as senior outfielder Rob Morrison launched his first long bomb of the year over the right field fence to give the Jays an early 1-0 lead. The lead held up until the bottom of the third, when the Bears scored three unearned runs to give them their largest lead of the day. Morrison closed the gap by a run in the bottom of the inning, though, scoring from third on a single to right center by Durgala.
Ursinus gave Hopkins a scare in the top of the sixth, with runners on first and third with two outs. But senior second baseman Tim Casale made a spectacular diving stop on a sharply hit grounder in the hole to get Ursinus' Jerry Rogers on a force out.
With two outs and nobody on base, Morrison once again came through at the plate with a single to right centerfield and stole second to advance into scoring position. Cetta, the next batter, appeared to strike out on a ball in the dirt, which would have thus ended the Blue Jays winning streak. However, the Ursinus first baseman could not handle a throw to first by the catcher, and Cetta ended up on first base, allowing Morrison to score the tying run. After a steal by Cetta, with two strikes on Durgala, the junior singled up the middle scoring Cetta on a close play at the plate.
"I was waiting for Cetta to steal second so I could win it with a single," said Durgala. "He stole on strike two, so I was behind in the count. I was just trying to stay back as long as I could and hit the ball hard up the middle. We have so many good hitters that it's very hard to keep us off the scoreboard for long. Any hitter in the order is capable of hitting a home run any at bat."
With the streak now at 19 games, one would think that Hopkins coach Bob Babb would have words of inspiration to keep his team going, but it's actually quite the contrary.
"He actually doesn't say anything at all [regarding the streak]," said Gleason. "In fact, after the second or third game of the year, he guaranteed us that eventually we'd lose. It's part of baseball and something you have to deal with. Our team is extremely laid back. We're not a "rah rah, lets go get 'em' team. We play our game, and so far everyday someone's come up big when we needed it. Our streak is just the product of our team focusing on winning each game one at a time."
