BALTIMORE, MD – The Johns Hopkins baseball team hosted Franklin & Marshall for a doubleheader in its regular-season finale Saturday afternoon, claiming a dramatic, 17-16 Game 1 victory before dropping Game2, 6-3 to split the series. The Blue Jays had already secured the top seed in the Centennial Conference playoffs earlier in the week, with the Diplomats' Game 2 win earning them the right to host Tuesday's play-in game between the fourth and fifth seeds.
 
Game 1: Johns Hopkins 17, F&M 16
 
The 33 runs scored between both sides in Game 1 are the most in a Hopkins game this season by a wide margin, with the Blue Jays (29-9, 16-2 Centennial) narrowly outlasting F&M to secure the win on the backs of impressive hitting across the board.
 
The high-scoring affair started early with homers by the Diplomats' Bobby Falese and Hopkins' Dillon Souvignier opening the game at 2-2 after one. Both teams appeared to settle following a second shutout inning, with Matt Savedoff taking care of F&M (19-19, 11-7 Centennial) again in the third before the Jays blew the game open with a six-run bottom half of the frame.
 
Jimmy Stevens kicked off his senior day with an infield pop-up that found its way to the ground, with a Dylan Whitney single and Alex Shane walk loading the bases. Steuerer earned a free 90 to give Hopkins its first lead of the afternoon before an errant throw attempting to turn two on Souvignier's second at-bat brought Shane home to double the lead at 4-2.
 
Battling with two outs after Caleb Cyr went down swinging, Isaiah Winikur registered his first hit since going down with an injury at the start of the month — a two-RBI single to center field — setting up Matthew Cooper to launch his fifth homer of the season to put the Jays in front 8-2.
 
Just as Hopkins' bats heated up so did the Diplomats', with F&M outscoring the Jays 5-3 over the next two innings to trim the lead to four before the sides combined for 11 runs in two very different halves of a long sixth inning.
 
The Diplomats' put up six runs on six hits in the frame, highlighted by a Falese grand slam to level things at 11. Tyler Sugrim came in to stop the bleeding and did just that, but not before allowing two more runs to cross home plate to give F&M back the lead for the first time since the opening inning. Runs for the home team, meanwhile, came much easier, with the Blue Jays scoring five runs on just one hit, drawing four walks and getting hit by three more pitches to quickly build their lead back to five at 16-13.
 
Hopkins added what proved to be the game-winning run in the seventh on an RBI-single from Cyr, securing the Jays the 17-16 victory after F&M plated the final three runs of the game in the eighth and ninth.
 
Game 2: Johns Hopkins 3, F&M 6
 
Saturday's second game was much less eventful in a contest in which the Diplomats never trailed en route to handing Hopkins the 6-3 loss — notably the Blue Jays' first conference loss at home during the regular season since 2022.
 
F&M scored the game's first run in the opening inning, but it was answered immediately after a Shane single scored Dylan Whitney — who had reached with a leadoff double during the prior at-bat — to tie things back up. Despite adding a pair of runs from Steuerer and Jacob Harris, the Diplomats outscored Hopkins 4-2 over the ensuing four innings to build their lead to 5-3.
 
The Blue Jays' bullpen gave Hopkins a chance to make a comeback, with Thomas Cancian, Aiden Kim, Shane and Grant Meert combining to give up just one run over the next four innings, but in their final push with two on and no one out in the bottom of the ninth it was F&M's Kiernan Keller retiring the Blue Jays's next three batters to hand Hopkins just its second conference loss of the season.
 
With the Game 2-win, F&M now gets to host Haverford in the 4-5 game Tuesday' April 30, with the winner traveling the Baltimore to take on the top-seeded Blue Jays Thursday, May 2. First pitch of the Centennial Conference quarterfinal is set for 3 p.m.
 
Inside the Box Score – Johns Hopkins
• Sugrim earned the Game 1 win to move to a perfect 3-0 on the year, while William Boneno's late-game efforts earned the sophomore his team-best fourth save of the season.
 
• Shane was red-hot at the plate all afternoon, combining to go 5-7 with five runs and two RBIs across both games. The sophomore concludes the regular season batting a team-best .355 with a mark of .391 in conference play.
 
• Steuerer also impressed at the dish, going a combined 4-6 with three runs, two doubles and three RBIs. The junior was also a force in the infield, turning a number of highlight-reel plays to keep F&M off the bags.
 
• Souvignier, Cyr, Cooper and Stevens all went yard in Game 1, with Cyr's serving as his team and Centennial Conference-best 12^th of the season. No Blue Jay hit a homer in the second game, marking the first home game without a Hopkins home run since March 11.
 
• Whitney was one of just three players to secure a hit in both games. Finishing the regular season with a batting average of .323, the junior heads into the Centennial Conference Tournament on a seven-game hitting streak.