BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins baseball team hosted Lebanon Valley in their final non-conference game of the regular season, scoring 12 unanswered runs in the sixth and seventh innings to top the Flying Dutchmen 12-2. Taking on one of the most difficult non-conference schedules in the country, the Blue Jays finished with a 13-7 record.
 
Monday's contest began as a first-year pitcher's duel between Hopkins' Drew Grumbles and Lebanon Valley's Trey Dianna, with neither side budging in a scoreless opening four innings. Finally, following a leadoff single in the top of the fifth, it was the Dutchmen scoring a pair on relief pitcher Ryan Anderson — one of which was attributed to Grumbles — to break the scoreless tie and take the lead.
 
Lebanon Valley (17-16, 10-8 MACF) threatened for more with the bases loaded and one out, but entering in place of Anderson was Tyler Sugrim, who came up big with two swinging strikeouts to limit the damage to just two runs.
 
Dianna tossed one final shutout inning — his career-best fifth — followed by a quick half inning from Sugrim before the Blue Jays (26-8, 13-1 Centennial) pounced on a Dutchmen pitching change to take their first lead of the game in the sixth.
 
Facing a new arm for the first time on the afternoon, Hopkins' first five batters reached base safely — including four via the walk — with a balk leveling the score at two. Jimmy Stevens stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and sent a pitch right back up the middle to give the Jays the 3-2 lead, setting up Dylan Whitney to hit his first collegiate grand slam to blow the game open and put Hopkins up 7-2.
 
The bases were quickly loaded once again following a Shane single and pair of walks drawn by Caleb Cyr and Dillon Souvignier — the duo each drew two walks in the inning — before the Blue Jays' sixth and final run of the inning came on a fielder's choice off the bat of Shawn Steuerer.
 
Sugrim let up his lone hit in an otherwise perfect outing in a scoreless seventh, allowing Hopkins to put the game out of reach with a four-run bottom half to build the lead to double digits. Matthew Cooper and Tripp Myers got on base to start the inning, with an RBI double off the bat of Seif Ingram making it 9-2.  Whitney took one off the body to load the bases, setting up Shane, Clay Hartje and Souvignier to bring in runs on three consecutive at bats and balloon the lead to its largest of the night at 12-2.
 
Back on the mound it was Sugrim tossing another flawless eighth inning before Cole Eggleston entered and kept the drought going in a scoreless ninth to clinch the win in front of the home crowd.
 
Hopkins is back at Babb Field Tuesday, April 23 to take on Gettysburg. First pitch in the Blue Jays's return to conference play is set for 3:30 p.m.
 
Inside the Box Score – Johns Hopkins
• Sugrim took home a well-deserved win following one of the best outings of his career. Entering the game in dangerous territory, the sophomore allowed just one hit and struck out three in 3.2 scoreless innings.
 
• Three Blue Jays registered multiple hits in the win, led by a 3-4 day from Shane. The sophomore's three hits are his second-most in a game this season, extending his hitting streak to 12 and his stretch of games in which he has reached base safely to 23.
 
• Souvignier went 2-3 on the afternoon, extending his hit streak to eight games — including five with multiple hits — while Steuerer completed the trio going 2-4 with a double and RBI. Souvignier's .339 batting average leads Hopkins while Steuerer's 35 RBIs — he has at least one in each of his last six games — is second.
 
• After plating 12 runs in today's game, the Jays have now reached double figures in scoring in each of their last six games. Hopkins' 9.03 runs per game currently ranks in the top 25 in Division III after finishing fifth a season ago.