After falling to Lebanon Valley just days before to end a five game winning streak, the Hopkins baseball team looked to get back on track Thursday against Washington College to kick off a three game home stand.
Heading into Thursday’s matchup against Washington College, the Blue Jays were tied for first place with Haverford who was facing off with the third-place Diplomats of Franklin and Marshall, giving Hopkins an opportunity to pull ahead in the standings with a Fords loss.
With a win and Fords loss, the Jays would have a clear path to host the Centennial Conference tournament this coming weekend.
With all that on the line, Hopkins put the ball in junior starting pitcher Alex Eliopoulos’s hands to get a much needed win and, as usual, Eliopoulos delivered. Eliopoulos, who is coming off of a 10 win season in 2010 and was voted a pre-season All-American has been every bit as good as he was a year ago, which he says is due to the hard work he put in during the offseason.
“My goal was not to settle with last year’s success, but to work harder to keep improving and do even better,” the 6’6 righty said.
Aiming for his sixth win of the season, Eliopoulos started the game with five hitless innings, baffling the Shoremen hitters on his way to the win. In total, Eliopoulos struck out four batters and allowed just four hits and zero earned runs.
On the offensive, the Jays spread five runs throughout the game to provide more than enough support for their starting pitcher. With men crossing the plate in the first, second, fourth and fifth inning, Hopkins was able to build a 5-0 lead before Washington managed a single run in the sixth.
The lone run was all the Shoremen could muster as Eliopoulos’s strong outing was backed up by two scoreless innings from juniors Aaron Schwartz and Sam Eagleson, who recorded the save.
Following their victory, Hopkins expected to take on Muhlenburg for a Saturday double header, but a rainy afternoon pushed the games off until Monday. However, when the two teams did hit the field, the Jays came out gunning.
Right off the bat, Hopkins put up four runs in the bottom of the first with hits from seniors Anthony Venditti and Jesse Sikorski and sophomores Jeff Lynch and Zach Small. Small had an excellent game for himself as a designated hitter, coming up with two homeruns and five runs batted in.
“It was nice to make an adjustment and start hitting the ball hard,” Small said.
The power-packed first inning was followed by a strong third frame as the Jays took advantage of two Mule errors to put up four unearned runs, which gave the Jays a commanding 8-1 lead.
The strong offensive outing was matched on the mound by their starting pitcher Eagleson. In seven superb innings, he allowed just two hits and one walk while striking out six to get the decisive victory, his fourth of the year. By game’s end, Hopkins came away with a 9-2 victory lead by 10 hits.
In the second game of the doubleheader, the Blue Jays once again took it to Muhlenburg, earning an 11-4 win to sweep the Mules out of Baltimore. Hopkins got to the Muhlenberg pitchers early and often, getting hits in every inning except the fifth.
Otherwise, the Jays hammered the Mule pitchers for 14 hits and harassed the Mule defenders into six errors, which led to four runs. On the mound for Hopkins, grad student starting pitcher Matt Wiegand allowed only one run through seven innings while also striking out seven.
The star of the day though was undoubtedly Small. Riding a nine-game hit streak going into the day, Small batted an astounding .571 with three home runs and seven RBI’s to extend his hit streak to 11 in leading the Hopkins offense.
Despite his success though, Small had a team first attitude after the game.
“Our team has really come around lately, and we really want to keep it rolling through to Regionals,” Small said.
With their two wins on Monday, Hopkins wrapped up the Centennial Conference regular season title, earning them the number-one seed in the Conference tournament and home-field advantage all weekend.
The Jays then played their final regular season conference game on Tuesday at Washington. Hopkins quickly took an 11-1 lead in the game, a lead by six home runs, two of which were launched by sophomore outfielder Matt Ricci.
In the first inning, after an RBI single from Lynch, Ricci stepped to the plate for the first time with the bases loaded and wasted little time getting to work, knocking the first pitch he saw well beyond the left field fence for a grand slam and his first career home run.
The Shoremen would try to creep back into the game, but the Jays continued to pile on runs, winning 16-12.
The Blue Jays hope this is only the beginning of their success. Eliopoulos believes in this team and has high hopes.
“Our expectations for the rest of the season are to win the conference tournament, win the regional tournament and win it all in Appleton, Wis. [where the Division III World Series is held]. These were our expectations at the beginning of the year and will continue to be our expectations for the rest of the season,” Eliopoulos said.
Postseason play begins on Friday with one-seed Hopkins playing four-seed Ursinus to kick things off.
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