BALTIMORE, MD – The top-seeded Johns Hopkins baseball team outscored second-seeded Dickinson 11-2 between the third and seventh innings and the Blue Jays locked up the 18^th Centennial Conference title in program history with a 15-10 victory over the Red Devils in the league championship game Monday evening at Babb Field.
 
With the victory, Johns Hopkins (32-9) earns the Centennial Conference's automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Tournament.  After topping McDaniel earlier in the day to move into the championship game, Dickinson slips to 28-12 and must now wait to see if it earns an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
 
Johns Hopkins spotted starter Matt Savedoff a quick four-run lead as the Jays hit three first-inning home runs to grab a quick 4-0 lead.  Dylan Whitney wasted no time giving the Blue Jays an early 1-0 lead as he drove an offering from Ben Myers over the wall in left-center and Shawn Steuerer followed two batters later with a two-run shot to right to make it 3-0.  Senior Caleb Cyr closed the scoring in the opening frame for the Blue Jays with a blast to right field.
 
The Red Devils answered quickly as they plated three runs in the top off the second.  Back-to-back singles to open the inning were followed by a blast over the right centerfield wall from sophomore Johnny Bruno to make it a one-run game.
 
The Blue Jays scratched out four runs on four hits in the bottom of the third to extend the lead to 8-3.  A pair of run-scoring singles from Matthew Cooper and Jimmy Stevens and a two-run double from Whitney that chased home Cooper and Stevens accounted for the four runs in the inning for the Jays.
 
Dickinson got one back in the top of the fourth as senior Kenny Tagliareni laced a one-out double to left center and raced home on a two-out Blue Jay throwing error to trim the deficit to 8-4.
 
The four-run lead was up to seven in the bottom of the inning and it was the long ball again that did the damage for the Blue Jays.  After Dillon Souvignier and Jacob Harris sandwiched a walk and single around a strikeout, Dickinson's Brian Riley induced a fly ball to record the second out of the inning, but Copper drilled the first offering he saw deep over the fence in left to extend the Blue Jay lead to 11-4.
 
The Devils again got one back as they used a sacrifice fly off the bat of Tagliareni in the top of the fifth to plate a run, but the story of the inning was Savedoff working out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam.  After the Devils loaded the bases, Harris made a nice running catch in left and Stevens chased down a blooper down the line in right to kill the threat.
 
Hopkins got that run back in the bottom of the fifth as Whitney singled, advanced to second on an Alex Shane single and later raced home on the front end of a double steal.
 
The Blue Jays pushed across another crooked number in the bottom of the sixth as they pushed across two more runs on a two-run Whitney double to left that extended the lead to 14-5.  A single run in the bottom of the seventh pushed the lead to 10 at 15-5 before Dickinson punched across two runs in the eighth and three more in the ninth to account for the 15-10 final score.
 
Inside the Box Score – Johns Hopkins
• Whitney led a 15-hit Blue Jay attack as she was 4-for-4 with five RBIs and two runs scored.  Among his four hits were the one home run and two doubles.  For his efforts, he was named the Centennial Conference Tournament MVP.
 
• Cooper and Cyr both collected a pair of hits with Cooper going 2-for-4 with four RBIs and two runs scored, while Cyr was 2-for-5 with two runs scored and one RBI.
 
• Savedoff picked up the win as he went 5.0 innings and allowed five runs (four earned) and struck out four.
 
• Johns Hopkins finished the tournament with 54 runs in three games.  The 54 runs are the second most ever scored in the tournament (55 / Johns Hopkins in 2007).
 
What's Next
With the Centennial Conference's automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Tournament in-hand, Johns Hopkins will now wait until the bracket for the tournament is announced on Monday, May 13 (12 pm) to learn the location of its regional assignment.