The 15th-ranked Hopkins baseball team (23-4, 11-1) successfully swept a doubleheader at Ursinus on Saturday afternoon, winning both games by counts of 5-2 and following up with an 11-4 rout. The team totaled 30 hits in the two games.
The Jays started off strong in the first inning with back-to-back singles. After the first out of the day, a sacrifice fly by senior third baseman Todd Emr brought home the first run.
After a few relatively quiet innings, Hopkins drove in two more runs in the fourth inning. Senior left fielder Jon Solomon blasted a home run over the right field wall, his second of the season. The Bears would not roll over just yet though, adding a run of their own in the bottom of the inning, cutting the Jays' lead to two, 3-1.
Hopkins came right back in the top of the fifth and added another run, but Ursinus followed suit in the bottom of the next frame. After six innings, Hopkins clung to a 4-2 lead.
Junior first baseman Ryan Biner added to the lead in the top of the seventh with an RBI single. Ursinus was unable to respond, and the first game of the doubleheader belonged to Hopkins.
On the mound for the Blue Jays, junior right hander Chez Angeloni increased his win total to four, throwing for 5.1 innings, only allowing two runs and striking out two. Pitching in relief, sophomore Matt Weigand shut out the Bears in 1.2 innings of work and picked up his first save. Throwing a complete game, Zack Engle took the loss for the Bears.
Hopkins came out hot again for the second game of the doubleheader. Right off the bat in the first inning Emr blasted one over right field for a two-run homer.
Adding two more runs in the top of the third, Hopkins increased their lead to 4-0. However, the Bears had a little fight still left in them, and they added three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning.
Hopkins had its own three-run inning too. At the top of the seventh inning, senior center fielder Rob Pietroforte drove home two runners on an RBI single and later was able to score due to a wild pitch.
The onslaught continued in the eighth inning. The Jays drove home four more, with Emr hitting his second homerun of the game, sophomore right fielder Brian Youchak driving home two more on an RBI single, and with Pietroforte hitting a sacrifice fly. It was another Hopkins victory, this time by a count of 11-4.
Picking up his first win of the season, senior right hander Pat Steffee threw five innings of relief and only allowed one run. Louis Serrano took the loss for Ursinus, allowing four runs in five innings of work.
The top three performances for the doubleheader belonged to Emr, Pietroforte, and Youchak. Emr was 5-for-7, scored three times and had four RBIs off of two home runs, a double and a sacrifice fly. Pietroforte, four-for-seven with three runs scored and four RBIs, had two stolen bases, two doubles and a sacrifice fly. Youchak drove home two RBIs while scoring four runs himself, going five-for-eight.
The Jays returned to work on April 15th, scoring 13 runs en route to a 13-2 blowout versus the Red Devils of Dickinson College, to win their sixth consecutive game. Senior right hander Brian Duddie lifted the team in allowing only two runs in seven innings on the mound. The Jays hit the ball extremely well, and Youchak and senior Nate Adelman each contributed a home run.
Like always, the Blue Jays were on the board from the start. With a runner on first, Youchak hit his fourth homer of the year, giving Hopkins a 2-0 lead. With the bases loaded, Biner knocked a sacrifice fly, allowing one more to score the third run of the game. Sophomore second baseman Lee Bolyard drove home one more in the inning with an RBI groundout. At the end of the first inning, Hopkins had a comfortable 4-0 lead.
Dickinson was able to score a run off Duddie in the top of the second and off a solo shot by Nicholas Perkins, but the Red Devils were never in this game. Duddie just kept sitting them down, one after another, not allowing more than one base runner in the third, fourth and fifth innings, striking out four.
After a six-run fifth inning, Dickinson was unable to spark a comeback. Biner had his second RBI of the game with a single to left field. Also knocking home RBI singles were Youchak, Solomon and senior DH Matt Benchener. The last two runs were driven home by a passed ball.
Dickinson scored in the sixth inning on an RBI double by Even Hennessy, but at this point the game was far out of reach, with Hopkins having an insurmountable 10-2 lead.
In the bottom of the seventh, Adelman knocked the ball over the left field fence with two runners on, scoring the last three runs of the game on his first home run of his career.
Duddie picked up his fourth win, throwing seven strong innings, allowing seven hits but striking out nine. Zach Light allowed 10 runs in less than five innings of work, taking the loss.
The next few games are critical for the Jays, though. The team is confident though. "We've been swinging real well lately, getting 11 or 12 runs a game. Our pitching has been great," Biner said. "We've got Franklin & Marshall this weekend; that'll be a big test for us and important if we want home field advantage in the playoffs," he said. Senior pitcher Ryan Kealy agreed.
"We're playing real well, but we've got a tough stretch the next couple days. These games could really define our season. How we do against Franklin & Marshall, TCNJ and Montclair State will say a lot about us as a team," Kealy said.
The Jays travel up to Carlisle, Pa. on Friday to take on Dickinson again. The first pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
