The Hopkins men’s baseball team dropped out of the national top 25 this week and fell to a tie for third place in the Centennial Conference after dropping both games of a doubleheader at Swarthmore on Sunday, though before recovering for a thrilling comeback win over McDaniel on Monday afternoon.
Entering Sunday, the Blue Jays sat atop the Centennial standings with only one defeat in conference play. The first game of the doubleheader, scheduled to last just seven innings, featured strong pitching from the Blue Jays’ starter, graduate student Matt Wiegand.
After allowing a run in each of the first two innings, Wiegand recovered to finish with four straight scoreless frames and surrendered only four hits all afternoon.
The Blue Jays, however, could not break through against Swarthmore’s starting hurler Ignacio Rodgriguez who notched 6.1 shutout innings to earn his fourth win of the year. Rodriguez left in the top of the seventh with the bases loaded and only one out, but reliever Ramsey Walker struck out the next two hitters to seal the 2-0 victory for the Garnet and earn his fifth save of the season.
The News-Letter’s Athlete of the Week, graduate student and catcher Joe Borrelli led Hopkins with three hits in the first game while junior designated hitter Zach Small added two singles of his own. The Blue Jays’ eight hits were double Swarthmore’s total, but Hopkins left 12 runners on base in the game.
The second game featured significantly more offense as Swarthmore knocked Jays’ junior pitcher Alex Eliopoulos from the game before he could record an out in the third inning. Eliopoulos was tagged for six runs, five of which were earned, in his two innings of work and by the end of the fourth inning Hopkins trailed 8-0.
The Jays mounted a bit of a comeback later in the contest, scoring two runs in the top of the sixth inning behind RBI singles from senior outfielder Jesse Sikorski and Small, which marked their first runs of the afternoon in either game. But the team could not dig themselves out of the early hole they had created and were defeated by the Garnet, 9-4.
Hopkins was forced to recover quickly from their two defeats when they met McDaniel at home the following afternoon. Hopkins prevailed in that game largely due to the efforts of Borrelli who played the game of his career.
Borrelli began his offensive explosion by driving home junior outfielder Mike Musary with a single in the top of the first. Sikorski followed with an RBI groundout to stake the Jays’ starting pitcher, junior Sam Eagleson, to a 2-0 lead.
After Eagleson allowed McDaniel to tie the score in the top of the second inning, Hopkins answered in the bottom of the inning with more help from Borrelli. Shortly after junior outfielder Sam Wernick collected an RBI single to put Hopkins up by a run, Borrelli came to bat with the bases loaded and promptly cleared them by stroking a three run double to the wall in right center field.
Hopkins added another run in the top of the fourth when sophomore shortstop Kyle Neverman led off the inning with a towering home run to straight away center field for his third dinger of the season.
The teams traded runs in the sixth inning, with Hopkins’ run coming on a solo home run from Borrelli.
The Jays appeared to be in good shape as the game headed into the top of the seventh inning with an 8-3 lead. But McDaniel notched two runs off Eagleson in the top of the seventh on a double from Green Terror catcher Chris Longo. Eagleson avoided further damage by striking out McDaniel’s shortstop Ryan Byrnes, who represented the tying run, to end the inning.
Blue Jays’ head coach Bob Babb elected to send Eagleson out to start the eight inning and the Jays’ starter retired the first two batters he faced. After a bunt single, however, McDaniel’s third baseman Marshall Betts pounded a two-run homer to left field, making it a one run game.
McDaniel’s left fielder Jimmy Najera followed another single with the second home run of the inning to put the Green Terror on top for the first time all day.
With the Blue Jays on the brink of another crushing defeat, they rallied in the bottom of the eight inning. Wernick reached on an error to lead off the inning, but the next two Jays were retired. Then Borrelli stepped to the plate and officially put his stamp on the afternoon by launching a two run homer to right field to retake the lead for Hopkins and drive in his seventh run of the afternoon, a career high.
“With a runner on third in that situation you’re just trying to get a base hit and tie the game,” Borrelli said. “But obviously I’ll take the home run.”
Junior relief pitcher Aaron Schwartz, who finished the eighth inning for Eagleson, got the final three outs for Hopkins in the top of the ninth to earn the win.
After the game, Coach Babb was highly impressed by Borrelli’s performance, but admitted his team has yet to find its groove.
“Had it not been for Joe we probably would have ended up with an ‘L’ instead of a ‘W’, but we just haven’t found our rhythm yet and I’m a little concerned, but hopefully this come-from-behind win will get us going,” Babb said.
The Jays now own a 14-10 overall record this season with a 7-3 mark in conference play.
