The Hopkins baseball team opened up Centennial Conference play this past Saturday against Haverford. This was a highly anticipated matchup between two nationally ranked teams. Last year, the Fords beat Hopkins three times, including a defeat in the Centennial Conference Tournament. The Blue Jays were looking for revenge against the Fords, while the Fords sought to continue their fourteen game win streak.
The Haverford Fords were picked to win the Centennial Conference outright. As the day concluded, such prediction seemed meaningless as the Blue Jays dominated the Fords in a two game sweep, forcefully pleading their case as the top team in the Conference.
In the first game, senior Chris Wilhelm jump started the offense in the second inning by launching a homerun to left field and give the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead. The Blue Jays tacked on another two runs in the fourth inning courtesy of Wilhelm’s second bomb of the day. Wilhelm is no stranger to hitting homeruns at Haverford’s field, as he hit a grand slam there just last year.
The Blue Jays continued to hit the Fords’ pitcher and added two more runs on a Mike Delinger triple to right field. Delinger then scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Matt Ricci, which extended the lead to 6-0.
Sophomore Colin McCarthy added a two-run homerun of his own in the seventh inning to give the Blue Jays a 8-0 lead on the day.
While the offense was continually plating runs, Blue Jays pitcher Tyler Goldstein was dealing and kept the Fords at bay. Goldstein went the distance, yielding just three hits and striking out a career-high nine batters and did not allow a single run. Goldstein was virtually untouchable throughout his nine-inning performance and was able to hand Haverford their first loss of the season.
Sophomore Jacob Enterlin took his 3-0 record to the hill in the second game for the Blue Jays and, like Goldstein, dominated the Haverford hitters. Enterlin went seven innings, struck out nine and did not allow an earned run on the day.
The homerun blasts continued as senior Jeff Lynch belted a three run shot in the third inning to give the Blue Jays an early 3-0 lead. The Fords cut the deficit in the seventh to two runs by manufacturing a run. Although the game became closer in the seventh, the eighth inning widened the gap enormously as the Blue Jays erupted for nine runs in the inning. The Blue Jay offense tacked on RBI after RBI in their path to a nine run inning. The Fords could not answer and the Blue Jays closed out the game 12-1.
Although the offense seemed to be clicking on all cylinders, the outstanding JHU pitching stole the headlines.
“Our pitching was stellar and it was really important that young guys like Enterlin could establish themselves in a tough atmosphere and throw strikes,“ Lynch added.
Despite being the conference opener, this game had big implications for the rest of the season. “These were two huge statement wins after losing three to them last year. It was especially good to beat them so handily on their home field,” said junior hurler Goldstein.
The Blue Jays returned to the field against non-conference opponent Alvernia. The Blue Jays took no time jumping on the freshman pitcher and plated three runs in the first inning, coming off of singles by Lynch, Wilhelm and Delinger. The Blue Jays continued tacking on runs in the second inning as they scored an additional three runs off of RBIs from McCarthy, Neverman and Lynch.
Freshman Carter Burns was on the mound for the Blue Jays and the offense gave him a sizeable 6-0 early lead. Burns did not spoil the cushion en route to his second collegiate victory. Burns went seven innings, struck out four and did not give up an earned run. Alvernia did manage to tack on two runs in the fifth inning but that was not enough to climb back into the game.
Sophomore Michael Grewe relieved Burns and struck out two batters in two innings of scoreless work to close out the game 6-2.
After wrapping up a non-conference victory on Monday, the Blue Jays traveled to Carlisle, PA to take on conference opponent Dickinson. Once again the Blue Jays jumped out to an early lead. Senior Ryan Zakszeski got things started for the offense with a two RBI double. Classmate Adam Weiner added another run with a sacrifice fly, giving the Blue Jays a 3-0 lead.
Dickinson came back and added two runs of their own to make the contest close, but the Blue Jays added some insurance runs in the later innings to regain a commanding lead. The Blue Jays ultimately took the game 6-3 and extended their win streak to eleven games.
Freshman Colin Friedman took the mound for the Blue Jays and he earned his second victory on the season with a solid pitching performance.
Hopkins Blue Jays are currently ranked 11th in the nation with a record of 18-2.
