The 11th ranked Hopkins football team traveled to Carlisle, Pa. this past weekend to take on Centennial Conference opponent Dickinson College. The Blue Jays cruised past the Red Devils, making a strong statement with their 49-0 shutout win. The Blue Jays continue to demonstrate their powerhouse status in the conference, hoisting their conference winning streak to 18 games.
Following a disappointing loss against the nationally ranked Salisbury Sea Gulls, the Hopkins volleyball team returned to action Saturday.
After dropping the first two home games in anemic fashion to the Cincinnati Reds, the San Francisco Giants appeared to be finished.
After a long break for both the men’s and women’s cross country teams, the Hopkins runners got back into it at the Goucher Invitational and the Pre-National Invitational on October 6th.
This past weekend, the Hopkins men’s tennis team welcomed Amherst College to the courts on Homewood campus for a great day of tennis. In the end, Hopkins was able to beat out Amherst 6-3, winning two of three doubles matches while taking four of six singles matches. The match could be described as a miniature marathon, lasting nearly five hours but it was one that was well worth the time. Hopkins was able to celebrate another victory coming off strong performances from the ITA Championships the previous weekend. The win marked the first time Hopkins had ever beaten Amherst, as the Blue Jays had been defeated in their previous four matches against the Lord Jeffs.
Last week the Hopkins volleyball team suffered a tough loss to Franklin & Marshall College, losing 1-3 (21-25, 25-18, 23-25, 24-26). The loss broke the Blue Jays team streak of 17 consecutive regular season conference victories. With the unexpected and disappointing loss, Hopkins knew they needed to rebound Saturday in their return to Goldfarb Gym.
Two weeks ago, after two consecutive shutouts over St. Mary’s College and Haverford College, Hopkins sophomore keeper Nick Ceronne was named Centennial Conference Defensive player of the week. This award marked the second time he has won the honor in his brief career.
The 17th ranked Blue Jays women’s soccer team won their third game in a row and their ninth overall this season, beating Ursinus 6-0 on the wings of sophomore Hannah Kronick’s fourth hat trick of the season. “We played a really good game, even though the team wasn’t the strongest opponent we’ll face this year,” Kronick said, “I think we all really stepped up and played at our level of play and it ended up fueling our success.” Her unprecedented number of hat tricks broke the previous record for a single season and in a career, previously set 14 years ago by Sarah Parola. All six of the Jays’ goals were scored in the first half.
This past Saturday, the Hopkins women’s field hockey team defeated Ursinus to improve their record to 6-5 overall and 3-2 in the Centennial Conference.
Hopkins water polo traveled all the way to Claremont, Calif. to compete in the Gary Troyer Memorial Tournament this past weekend. The extended road trip was a huge success, resulting in a 3-1 record, which included a monumental victory over Pomona-Pitzer, previously the number one ranked Division III school.
The Hopkins men’s soccer team got back on track this past Saturday, trouncing Centennial Conference rival Ursinus College by a score of 5-0. The Blue Jays struck five times in the game with goals by five different players, each of which were the respective player’s first goal of the season.
The 15th-ranked Hopkins football team extended their regular season winning streak to 19 games this past Saturday with a decisive 40-20 win over Centennial Conference opponent Juniata. The Blue Jays were led by Scott Cremens, the Centennial Conference player of the week. Cremens slashed the Eagles’ defense for nine receptions, a career-high 178 receiving yards and three touchdowns.
The 17th ranked Hopkins women’s soccer team took down Swarthmore on Sunday afternoon by a margin of 2-0.
Men’s soccer was back in action this week, hosting a marquee matchup with the 10th ranked Gettysburg Bullets on Thursday evening. Although the weekend got off to a slow start with a grueling 110 minute 0-0 draw with the Bullets, the Blue Jays took home a hard-fought 1-0 victory on Saturday night after upsetting Franklin & Marshall, who were previously ranked 5th in the country.
The Hopkins field hockey team played host to Swarthmore in a Centennial Conference match-up this past Sunday. The Blue Jays coasted past the Garnet 4-1, and improved their conference record to 2-1, with an overall 5-4 record. The Garnet fell to 1-3 in the Centennial Conference and 6-5 overall. The Lady Jays’ strong performance in the Centennial Conference thus far has set the team up nicely going forward with the conference schedule.
After their mastery over Juniata this past weekend at Homewood Field, where they doubled the Eagles 40-20, the Hopkins football team (5-0) climbed two spots in the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Division III Poll, ascending to the 13th slot.
The Hopkins water polo team took on Toronto and Harvard last weekend at the Bison Invitational in Lewisburg, Pa.
After the Stevenson Mustangs snapped the Blue Jays newly set team record for consecutive matches won at 16 last Tuesday, the Hopkins women’s volleyball team returned to action Thursday against Washington College.
Over the weekend, the Hopkins men’s tennis team traveled down to Fredericksburg, Va. to compete in the ITA Southeast Regional Championship against numerous other schools. As the final day of the championship concluded, it was clear that the Hopkins tennis team had a lot to be proud of.
Coming into the 2012 season, the Orioles already had a core of solid offensive players led by the likes of Mark Reynolds, Adam Jones, JJ Hardy, Nick Markakis and Matt Wieters, and a promising, yet uncertain set of young pitchers dubbed the “cavalry”. However, Vegas odds predicted that they would win fewer than 70 games. In the offseason, Baltimore signed Dan Duquette as their General Manager, a former Boston GM known for turning around the Montreal Expos and Boston Red Sox, yet had been out of the game for nearly a decade. Duquette, along with manager Buck Showalter, had historically winning pasts, and made it clear that they were ready to win now. Instead of signing big name free agents, Duquette chose to sign several defensive-oriented players at backup and platoon roles. Such names include a 27 year-old Taiwanese southpaw with pinpoint control out of the Japanese Nippon Professional League named Wei-Yin Chen, a 28 year-old former pitching prospect named Miguel Gonzalez out of the Mexican Winter League, and traded fan favorite Jeremy Guthrie for a journeyman starter named Jason Hammel. With an opening day payroll of $81 million, less than half that of the Red Sox and Yankees, Duquette was fully aware of the fact that he would have to exploit a market inefficiency in order to contend, and he did so by focusing on the development of the bullpen. As of Sunday, the bullpen had amassed 520 innings, more than 100 innings higher than the Yankees. This year has seen its share of wild extra inning games, starting in early May, when designated hitter Chris Davis earned the victory for the Orioles after coming in for relief in the 16th and 17th innings. Since then, the Orioles have won 16 straight extra inning games, a feat not accomplished since 1949. While the Orioles have had their fair share of late and extra inning offensive heroics this season, none of these would be possible without their stellar bullpen, led by All-Star closer and MLB saves leader Jim Johnson. All the more remarkable about the bullpen group, is the fact that they have won 16 of the Orioles 87 wins this year — accounting for nearly 20% of the Baltimore’s wins. As a result, the Orioles have out-scored their opponents by 28 runs in extra innings, compared to a far less than stellar minus-33-run differential in innings one through nine. Throughout the last few months, Duquette has made a number of seemingly head-shaking moves that somehow have proved successful. These transactions include picking up washed-up former stars off of waivers in late August and giving them occasional spot starts, trading for future Hall of Famer, Jim Thome, and calling up outfielder Nate McLouth and others from Triple A. Furthermore, on August 9, in an effort to bolster the defense and provide the team with a spark, Duquette promoted 20 year-old shortstop prospect Manny Machado from Double A Bowie to play third base. Despite his youth, Machado homered twice in his second game, once more in his third game, and has transformed the Orioles from one of the worst defenses into a rock-solid one. When leadoff hitter Nick Markakis broke his thumb in a game against the Yankees on September 8, the O’s chances of making the playoffs looked bleak. Since then, however, several role players have won games for Baltimore, most notably McLouth, who has been a major spark plug for this team with his late-inning offensive heroics. In fact, the Orioles are performing feats of an almost mythological nature on a daily basis. Just this past Tuesday the O’s scored two runs in the ninth to tie the game against Seattle, and when the Mariners failed to score in the bottom of the ninth, an extra innings battle ensued. Finally, in the top of the 18th after Orioles relievers managed to get out of several scary situations, backup catcher Taylor Teagarden produced the game winning RBI. Following this game, which ended just minutes short of four AM East-coast time, Duquette once again surprised all by calling up 19 year-old über prospect Dylan Bundy — the top pitching prospect in baseball and a once-in-a-generation type talent--to pitch out of the bullpen. Duquette has truly utilized all his resources and has proved his desire to win now. While Showalter, Duquette, the bullpen, and the statistical oddities have all been remarkable stories for Baltimore, these are just a few aspects of a handful of legendary Orioles magic that has unfolded this season. Needing only three more victories to reach 90 wins, the O’s will have done so with only a single pitcher on the staff with 10 or more victories. That campaign comes in the form of Wei-Yin Chen. Furthermore, the Birds have had 51 players on the big league club and 75 in Triple-A Norfolk. Despite these continuous roster changes, several players have individually carried the Orioles at variously points in the season, resulting in a 67-0 record when leading after 7 innings, 27-9 record in one run games, and a 16-2 mark in extra inning games. On Sunday, following another walkoff win in twelve innings against the Red Sox, Baltimore lost a heartbreaker 2-1 in Boston, putting their six game winning streak to a halt. However, Bundy debuted in the eighth in a crucial situation with runners on, and the young righty gave up no hits and stranded the base-runners. With ten games left to play, Baltimore trails New York by one game in the American League East and holds a one-game lead over Oakland for the first of two wild card spots. Thanks to a rule change that added extra wild card teams this season, if the Orioles do not win the division, yet clinch the first wild card spot, they will face Oakland in a one game playoff at Camden Yards to determine who will play the other division winners. When all is said in done, whatever happens to this team will be a step in the right direction. The Birds have already won 20 more games then they were supposed to and are on the brink of reaching the playoffs for the first time since 1997, a time when many of us had a core curriculum of ABC’s and naptime. Despite the fact that much of the Orioles feats this year are statistical oddities, they seem primed to win in coming years with Bundy, Machado, Jones, Wieters, and company. So for now, my only advice is to sit back, grab some Bohs, and wait for that Orioles Magic to strike yet again.
