DAVENPORT, FL – The Johns Hopkins baseball team put on a clinic in its doubleheader against seventh-ranked Wisconsin-La Crosse and Wisconsin-Stevens Point Tuesday, cruising past the Eagles 8-0 before completing the near-perfect day with a 6-0 win over the Pointers.
 
Game 1: Johns Hopkins 8, Wisconsin-La Crosse 0
 
The Blue Jays took lead early in Tuesday's opener and never looked back en route to an 8-0 win over No. 9 Wisconsin-La Crosse. Bearden Awadzi was phenomenal on the mound tossing seven shutout innings, with contributions across the board at the plate lifting Hopkins to the statement win.
 
After a shutout opening half inning from Awadzi, the Blue Jays (8-5) immediately went to work building their lead. Tripp Myers opened the day with a bunt single down the third base line, advancing to second after Jake Siani drew one of his two walks of the day. With two on and one out, Caleb Cyr drove the ball to right center to bring home Myers and put Hopkins in front after one.
 
A quiet second inning was followed by a four-run third that put the Blue Jays firmly in the driver's seat. Myers once again got things going, this time hitting a solo shot to right field — the senior's first homer of the season — to double Hopkins' lead. With runners on the corners following a fielder's choice, Shawn Steuerer ripped the ball back up the middle to score Siani before a Jacob Harris triple — his second of the season — scored two more to make it 5-0 a third of the way through the contest.
 
While Awadzi continued to leave Wisconsin-La Crosse's batters confused at the plate, smart base running by Damian Brown and Siani paired with an RBI single by Seif Ingram built the lead to eight through five.
 
The Eagles threatened to break the shutout in the seventh with runners on second and third with two outs, but in his final inning of work Awadzi forced a routine grounder to short to end the frame. From there it was Drew Grumbles putting together a near-perfect outing in relief, walking one batter and fanning four in the final two innings to secure the 8-0 win and second combined shutout of the season.
 
Inside the Game 1 Box Score – Johns Hopkins
• Awadzi's seven innings pitched are a career-high, with the combined shutout serving as his first of the year and third of his career. The sophomore ranks second among starters in ERA at just 1.69 in 16 innings of work.
 
• Grumbles still boasts a 0.00 ERA four appearances into his college career. The freshman's two innings pitched and four strikeouts from today are both career-highs.
 
• Harris tied his career-high in hits with two in a 2-4 outing at the plate. The sophomore set a new career-best in RBIs with two in his second start. Myers and Steuerer also recorded multi-hit days, going 2-4 and 2-3 respectively.
 
• Siani drew two talks and scored two runs in his first start of the season, bringing his season-long walk total to five and keeping his on-base percentage at a team-best .636
 
Game 2: Johns Hopkins 6, Wisconsin-Stevens Point 0
 
The Blue Jays picked up right where they left off in Game 2, earning their second shutout of the day with a 6-0 win over Wisconsin-Stevens Point, which had just beaten top-ranked Endicott in its first game of the day.
 
After a quiet opening two innings, it was the Pointers (3-4) almost breaking open the scoring in the bottom of the third, but an excellent play from Isaiah Winikur in center field caught a Stevens Point runner at third before the lead runner could cross home plate to keep the game scoreless. Instead, it was Hopkins (9-5) blowing the game open with a four-run fifth inning.
 
Winikur turned his defense into offense, cranking his first home run of the season to left field to break the scoreless tie. With two outs in the same frame, Matthew Cooper started a three-run rally with a single, with Steuerer following that up with a single of his own before both scored on a Lukas Geer double to left field. The Jays' fourth and final run of the inning came on the next at-bat where — after moving to third on a wild pitch — Geer scored on an RBI single up the middle from Seif Ingram.
 
Looking to build more of a safety net, Winikur stepped back up to the plate in the sixth and washed, rinsed and repeated his prior at bat, ripping a two-run shot to left to put Hopkins in front 6-0.
 
Kieren Collins continued to command the mound, allowing two hits in his final two innings before the graduate student gave way to William Boneno, who allowed just one hit and struck out two in 2.1 scoreless innings to lock up the team's second combined shutout of the afternoon.
 
The Blue Jays are back Thursday, March 21 to take on No. 19 Kalamazoo, with first pitch set for 10:30 a.m.
 
Inside the Game 2 Box Score – Johns Hopkins
• With the win, Collins moves to 3-0 on the year. His 19 career wins ranks as the 17^th most in program history, with his ERA of 1.11 leading all starters this season.
 
• This was the first multi-home run game of Winikur's career, with his homer in the fifth serving as his first since April 21, 2023.
 
• Ingram entered the second of today's contests on a four-game hitting streak, extending that to five with his perfect 3-3 effort in Game 2 and bringing his season batting average over .300.
 
• This is just the second time in the last 10 years the Blue Jays have shut out opponents in back-to-back games and the fourth time in program history they have done so on the same day. The 2023 team also achieved the consecutive games feat with shutout wins over Washington College.