No. 14 Johns Hopkins Powers Past Garnet Baseball, 15-4 and 15-3
BALTIMORE - No. 14 Johns Hopkins used the power of the long ball, blasting nine home runs and pushing 30 runs across the plate to sweep a Saturday afternoon doubleheader with the Swarthmore College baseball team 15-4 and 15-3 in Centennial Conference action.
Johns Hopkins' Brian Youchak led the potent Blue Jay offense, going 6-of-7 with three home runs on the day. Sophomore Anthony Montalbano and sophomore Mike Cameron both hit solo home runs to lead the Garnet (12-10, 4-4) offense.
Montalbano connected for a solo home run in the first game.
In the first game, the Blue Jays tagged starting pitcher junior Neil Mejia for 11 runs on 11 hits in 3.1 innings while finishing the game with five home runs en route to the 15-4 win over the Garnet.
The powerful Blue Jay offense jumped on the Garnet from the get-go, scoring four runs in the first thanks to a solo home run from Jon Swarr and three-run blast from Youchak.
The hot Hopkins bats continued to pour it on, scoring five more runs on two home runs in the second inning before finally chasing Mejia from the game in the bottom of the fourth. Reliever freshman Sean Mangus didn't fare much better, as the freshman gave up three consecutive hits, including a home run by Stephen Bejsiuk to give JHU a commanding 14-0 lead.
For Swat, Montalbano joined the home run derby with his first dinger of the season as part of his two-hit day, while Mike Waterhouse also finished the game with two hits.
The five home runs by Hopkins marked the second consecutive game that the Blue Jays had gone deep five times.
In the second game, the Blue Jays jumped to a 3-0, thanks to Youchak's second home run of the day , and it looked it would just be more of the same following the Game 1 rout.
But the Garnet answered right back in the bottom of the first, showing that would put up a fight.
Sophomore Spencer Ross led the inning off with a double to deep center field while senior Jimmy Gill singled in the next plate appearance. Two batters later, and RBI fielder's choice from junior Ben Schneiderman brought home the Garnet's first run, making it a 3-1 game.
Now down 5-1 in the fourth inning, Swarthmore scored an unearned run in the fourth on another RBI groundout by Schneiderman, cutting the lead to 5-2
But that was as close as Swat would get, as the Blue Jay offense awoke, scoring three runs in the seventh and seven runs in eighth inning to put the game our of reach. Jesse Sikorski, Joe Borrelli, and Youchak - for the third time on the day - all went deep during the stretch.
Cameron added a solo home run of his own in the eighth for Swat, but it was too little, too late as the Blue Jays won 15-3.
Junior Andy Allen took the loss for the Garnet in the second game, allowing three earned runs in five innings of action.
Waterhouse finished the day with four hits. Gill and Montalbano both finished with three hits.
The Garnet will look to return to its winning ways with a trip to rival Haverford on Tuesday (3:30).