“Our approach going into the weekend was that each game was like a playoff game," junior outfielder Chris Casey said. "We had to come out and bring our best level of play in order to show why we belong in the tournament. We had to prove this not only to the other teams in the conference, but to ourselves. We backed ourselves into a corner earlier in the season by losing some critical games, but this past weekend was a great opportunity to dig ourselves out."
The Jays were able to do just this, securing the fourth and final spot in the tournament by crushing Washington College 17-6 and Muhlenberg 14-4 in their first game of a doubleheader. Hopkins lost its next two games in extra innings but was still able to finish the season with a 9-9 conference record and a 22-15 record overall.
Junior outfielder Craig Hoelzer has had a breakout season this year and continued his success last weekend, going 4-4 against Washington College, including leadoff hits in each of the first two innings that helped fuel 13 runs. Hoelzer owes this success to his ability to mentally understand the game better.
“What I've personally done differently is all on the mental side of the game," Hoelzer said. "Baseball is a game of failure, and the best batters get out more than not. Instead of letting that affect my confidence, I've been able to separate each at bat and take it one at a time. Walking to the plate being confident in my abilities, the time I've put in during the offseason and not letting the result affect my approach has been key."
Thirteen runs was more than enough for sophomore starter Trevor Williams, who allowed only one run on seven hits through seven strong innings, bringing his record to 4-1 on the year. Williams did not let himself get comfortable with the lead though, pitching the way he would in any situation.
“I try to go out every inning like it's a 0-0 game," Williams said. "[Head Coach Bob Babb] always says you never know what run is going to win you the game. So when we have a big lead we try to keep that margin pretty high."
The next day, Hopkins split an important doubleheader against Muhlenberg. The Blue Jay bats began the first game the way they left off on Friday. They used 21 hits and a solid start by sophomore starter Carter Burns to crush Muhlenberg 14-4.
The next game was a different story, though, as the two teams alternated leads throughout the game and needed extras to finish it. After a scoreless 10th inning, Hopkins struck first in the top of the 11th on a two RBI double to deep center by senior outfielder Mike Denlinger. It was his third hit and fourth RBI of the game. The bullpen was unable to hold the lead as Muhlenberg pieced together a three-run bottom of the 12th to win the game 10-9.
On Sunday, the Jays faced Dickinson for their last conference game of the regular season. After a slow start, the Jays rallied in the fourth to take a 4-3 lead on Casey’s two-RBI single. Dickinson fought back and pushed the game into extras once more. The score remained tied until the 12th inning when a sac fly by senior first baseman Richie Carbone put the Jays up by one.
Senior starter Tyler Goldstein had already thrown 6.1 shutout innings and stayed in the game to try to finish off Dickinson in the bottom of the 12th. He was not able to hold the lead, though, as a costly error allowed Dickinson to score two runs and win the game 7-6.
Hopkins was still able to grab the fourth seed in the tournament after Gettysburg defeated McDaniel 6-4 to eliminate them from contention. Even though the season has not gone as well as the Jays had hoped, they now have a chance to start fresh and play to their potential.
“Our goal as a team is to win the conference championship," Casey said. "But we are going to have to do that one game at a time. After looking at this past weekend's games, we realized how lucky we are to have a spot in the tournament. Now we need to reset and come back ready to put our best performances on the field this Thursday. It is going to take strong defense, productive and timely hitting and strong pitching performances to achieve, but we certainly have that ability"
