Phoenix, AZ – The Johns Hopkins baseball team's bats came alive in the opening game of its annual trip to Phoenix, AZ for spring break as the Blue Jays put up a season-high in runs in their 12-1 victory over Springfield College at Gene Autry Park, Friday afternoon.
The Blue Jays (3-4-2) got on the board early and scored often as they put up three runs in the bottom of the first and six in the home half of the second. Junior Kyle Neverman led off the ball game for the Jays reaching on an error by the Pride's third baseman. After a walk to classmate Mike Kanen and a wild pitch, there were two runners in scoring position for first baseman Jeff Lynch. Lynch worked a full count and ripped the ball into left field to plate Neverman and put Kanen on third. Sophomore Mike Denlinger drew a full-count walk to load the bases before Kanen came around to score on the second wild pitch of the inning to give Hopkins a 2-0 lead and put runners on second and third. Junior Matt Ricci plated the final run of the inning with a sacrifice fly to left to score Lynch. Hopkins led 3-0 after one full inning of play.
Senior right-hander Alex Eliopoulos cruised through the top of the first with a 1-2-3 inning but gave up a leadoff hit in the top of the second. Eliopoulos got Mike McGowan swinging before giving up his second hit to the Pride (5-2) to put two runners on with one out in the inning. The senior settled in and fanned the next two batters he faced to set Springfield down without scoring a run and preserved the 3-0 lead.
Senior Joe Hemmes and junior Chris Vonderschmidt led off the second with back-to-back singles and Neverman drew a walk to load the bases with no outs for Kanen. Kanen took the first pitch he saw to left field to bring around Hemmes and Vonderschmidt to give the Blue Jays a 5-0 cushion. With one out, Lynch grounded out to the third baseman, but was able to advance Neverman and Kanen into scoring position. Denlinger got his first hit of the ball game with a two-run single to bring Neverman and Kanen home. After fighting off five pitches, junior John Maxwell split the outfielders in left center for a stand-up two-run double that scored Denlinger and Ricci for the final two runs of the inning and extend the Blue Jay lead to 9-0.
Springfield had its first real scoring threat of the game as Frank Calabrese walked to load the bases with two outs. McGowan watched a first-pitch strike from Eliopoulos and hit the second offering to Hemmes at third, who retired Sean Smith to get out of the inning.
Senior Aaron Borenstein led off the home half of the fourth with his fifth double of the season to left field and advanced to third on a fly ball to right from Lynch. Denlinger grounded out to second and brought home Borenstein to give Hopkins a 10-0 lead.
The Blue Jays tacked on a run in both the sixth and seventh innings to push their lead to 12-0. Borenstein got things started in the bottom of the sixth with a two-out single to right center. Denlinger collected his second hit and fourth RBI of the game with a single to right to plate Borenstein.
Junior Jared Frydman came into pitch for Eliopoulos in the sixth and got the Pride down in order in the top of the seventh. Frydman ended the seventh snagging a line drive comebacker from Smith.
Freshman Craig Hoelzer put the finishing touches on the Blue Jays offensive output with a sacrifice fly to right in the bottom of the seventh that brought home Maxwell to give the Blue Jays a 12-0 lead.
The Pride got just one run back in the top of the ninth off one hit and one Blue Jay error. Jared Hopkins reached on a throwing error by the Blue Jay shortstop and came around to score on an RBI double down the right field line from Tom Burke before the Blue Jays could get an out. Junior pitcher Ed Bryner got Steve Starr to ground out to second but Burke advanced to third on the play. Smith walked to put runners on the corners with one out for the Pride, but Bryner forced Mike Tanguay to ground into a 4-6-3 double play and end the game.
Denlinger led the way for the Blue Jays at the plate going 2-for-3 with a walk. Denlinger drove in four runs while coming around to score once. Kanen, Neverman and Borenstein each scored twice while Kanen and Maxwell drove in two runs apiece.
Eliopoulos got the win on the mound for the Blue Jays, throwing five strong innings, scattering six hits, walking two and fanning four batters. The right-hander now has 170 strikeouts in his career to move him into ninth on the JHU career strikeout list. Frydman threw two strong innings, striking out one and while facing just one over the minimum because of an error. Bryner finished the game on the bump, pitching two innings, giving up just one run, unearned, on one hit and two walks while striking out two.
Greg Marakovits took the loss for the Pride, going three innings, giving up nine runs, eight earned, on six hits, four walks and three wild pitches while striking out just one Blue Jay.
Hopkins continues its spring break trip as the Blue Jays return to the diamond tomorrow, March 17, in Phoenix, AZ to face Minot State (ND) at 9:30 am MST and UW-La Crosse at 2:00 pm MST.