In the bottom of the fourth inning of its home opener this past Tuesday, the Johns Hopkins baseball team plated six runs against Villa Julie to pull ahead 8-0 en route to an 11-1 blowout.
With the way the Blue Jays are playing lately, it's hard not to expect double-digit victories every time they take the field. During their current eight-game winning streak, the Jays have scored 10 or more runs all but once. What's more, in the midst of that same streak the opposing teams have only mustered more than three runs once, when Husson scored five unearned runs. Hopkins more than doubled Husson's output that day, bringing 12 runners around to score.
Even though the hitting has been hot, Hopkins (8-1) still has not hit its midseason form. Defense during the eight-game Florida road trip was spotty. Hopkins yielded 25 errors, allowing 11 unearned runs.
"The defense isn't quite there yet," said Hopkins Head Coach Bob Babb.
But save an 8-6 loss in the season opener to a tough Ripon team and a 4-3 victory over William Patterson, and the Blue Jays' opponents have been completely overmatched. Hopkins won seven of its eight games by at least seven and as many as 13 runs.
And the defense had its sparkling moments, including an artistic 1-6-3 triple play against Husson. With runners at first and second, senior pitcher Jason Hochfelder snagged a bunt in the air, turned and fired to freshman shortstop Jonas Fester for the force at second. Fester completed the triple play with a beeline throw to junior first baseman Tim Sliker for the third out.
Senior shortstop and co-captain Mike Spiciarich was in awe of Hochfelder's impressive catch and throw, calling it "very athletic. [He was] catlike coming off the mound."
Babb expects the defense to improve with more practice as the season goes along. What he didn't expect was the sustained dominance of a pitching staff that was thought to be a question mark at the beginning of the season.
"I was pleasantly surprised," he said. "Our pitching staff has done a great job throwing strikes."
More than throwing strikes, the pitchers are getting outs. The team ERA is a phenomenal 1.58. Hochfelder and junior Andrew Bail, the Centennial Conference Pitcher of the Week, looked nothing short of dominant in Florida.
Hochfelder has allowed no earned runs in 12.2 innings, good for wins in each of his two starts.
Bail has given up only one earned run and notched 11 strikeouts in 10 innings, also collecting two wins.
It is tough to pinpoint the leader of an offense that features 10 players hitting .348 or better, but senior first baseman and co-captain Mike Durgala is blowing opposing pitching away. Durgala, the Centennial Conference Player of the Week, is hitting .500 with five doubles, three home runs, and an off-the-charts 1.494 OPS.
What's most impressive is that the majority of those hits have come from the left side of the plate. In his first season as a switch hitter, Durgala has show tremendous power from both sides of the plate.
Durgala's fellow co-captain, senior center fielder Paul Winterling, isn't far behind. Winterling, who went four-for-four with a homer against Villa Julie, is batting .462 with two home runs and eight runs batted in. Winterling and Durgala, the team's chief power threats, are also first and second on the team in steals, going seven-for-seven and six-for-six, respectively. The two have been battling back and forth for team records in a friendly competition that began when they were both freshmen.
"I want to see [Paul] play well," said Durgala. "It's a great way to push each other on."
So what can be done to stop the surging Blue Jays, who started the season ranked second in the nation?
Not much.
On the way to a 13-2 victory against Suffolk, Spiciarich broke out of an early slump to the tune of three home runs in consecutive at-bats. On his fourth at-bat, he seemed to beat out a close play at first, but was called out.
"It was an awful call," said Spiciarich.
During the argument that nearly got Spiciarich tossed from the game, the umpire, instead of defending his call, "told me to look at the score," said Spiciarich.
With the way Hopkins is running over the competition, mercy from the umpires may be the Centennial Conference's only hope.
