SALISBURY, Md. – Senior right-hander Jeff Hoffman pitched seven innings of five-hit ball and junior left fielder Nick Gentry went 3-for-3 with a career-high four RBIs as the No. 6 Salisbury University baseball team defeated Johns Hopkins University, 11-6, on Senior Day at the SU Baseball Field Monday.
Hoffman (7-1) allowed just two runs and two walks while striking out two, buoying Salisbury (31-7) to its fourth straight win and eighth in nine games. Gentry led a group of four Sea Gulls with multiple hits with a double, triple and three runs scored. Joey Jones also collected three hits, adding a double, triple and RBI. Ken O'Neill and Kyle Hayman had a pair of hits each while Tyler Bennett hit his fourth home run of the season.
Trailing, 1-0, in the bottom of the second inning, Salisbury used three RBI singles to take a 3-1 lead. Gentry singled through the left side with runners on first and third, scoring Quinn Griffith to tie the game. O'Neill followed with a single to right-center field to plate Johnny Schiotis for the lead and Jones singled to left to bring Gentry home.
Johns Hopkins (24-14-2) cut the lead to 3-2 in the top of the fourth when Jeff Lynch lined a leadoff double down the left-field line and scored, two batters later, on a groundout by Mike Denlinger. Gentry, though, started the bottom of the inning with a triple to gap in right-center field and O'Neill drove him in with a sacrifice fly to center field to restore a two-run lead at 4-2.
Bennett hammered the first pitch of the bottom of the fifth from Sam Eagleson (4-4) over the left-center field fence to make it 5-2. Hayman added a run-scoring single to center, scoring Chris Connor for a 6-2 advantage heading to the sixth inning.
Gentry hit a bases-clearing double to the wall in left to key a four-run inning. Schiotis, Hayman and Griffith scored on the play, which sent the Blue Jays to bullpen for the first time on the day.
Eagleson took the loss in 6 1/3 innings, giving up 13 hits and 10 runs. With Ed Bryner on, O'Neill beat out an bouncer on the infield and stole second prior to a Bill Root sacrifice fly that pushed the lead to 10-2.
Hopkins got into the SU bullpen for four runs in the eighth. Michael Grewe hit an RBI single off Max Shannon and Richie Carbone a two-run single down the left-field line off Matt Beck. With Kyle Neverman up and two men out, Scott Barrett scored the Blue Jays' final run on a passed ball.
Five Johns Hopkins players tallied two hits apiece, led by Carbone, who went 2-for-4 with two RBIs.
The game marked the final home contest for eight Salisbury seniors, Hoffman, Bennett, Connor, Beck, Bill Morton, Stephen Miller, Devin Gardner and Eric Weiser.
The Sea Gulls are off until Thursday, May 10, when they travel to Montclair State University to close the regular season. First pitch at Yogi Berra Stadium is slated for 3:30 p.m.