AUBURNDALE, Fla. – Five unanswered runs for 10th-nationally ranked Johns Hopkins University in the eighth and ninth innings would help them propel past UMass Boston Baseball who entered the eighth inning with a 5-4 lead and eventually fell to the Blue Jays, 9-5, in the penultimate game of their spring break trip on Thursday night.
THE BASICS
UMass Boston 5, #10 Johns Hopkins University 9
UMass Boston (5-4)
#10 Johns Hopkins University (10-1)
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Blue Jays got the board first as back-to-back doubles from graduate outfielder Sam Browning and sophomore infielder Dylan Whitney gave Johns Hopkins their first run of the game with two outs. The very next batter in outfielder Isaiah Winikur hit a long home run to left field which gave the Blue Jays a 3-0 lead in the second inning.
UMass Boston would answer right back with a three spot of their own in the bottom half of the frame with three consecutive doubles to start the inning from senior infielders
Aidan Blake,
Nick Palma, and
Gianni Zarrilli Jr. plated the first two Beacon runs of the evening. After a fly out by sophomore outfielder
Mariano Jimenez advanced Zarrilli Jr. to third, an RBI groundout by senior catcher
Craig Corliss knotted the game up at three apiece after two innings of play.
The Beacons took their first lead of the contest in the fifth inning after a one-out double by freshman outfielder
Justin Gouveia and single by freshman outfielder
Breon Parker put runners on the corners with one out for UMass Boston. Senior outfielder
Chris Ducko hustled out an attempted double play ball that would have ended the inning, allowing Gouveia to score the go-ahead run, making it a 4-3 ballgame.
Working in the sixth inning of his start, sophomore pitcher
Ross Dexter allowed a leadoff single to junior infielder James Stevens. Stevens would eventually come around to score after a pair of wild pitches around a fly out by junior outfielder Caleb Cyr to bring the score even once again at four.
Responding in the bottom half of the inning, a long leadoff home run by
Aidan Blake, his first home run of the season, to the deepest part of the ballpark against freshman starting pitcher Charles Monterrosa put the Beacons back in front again, 5-4.
That lead would hold until the eighth inning when things began to unravel for the UMass Boston bullpen. Following 1 2/3 scoreless relief innings from junior pitcher
Sam Gray, senior pitcher
Thomas Kierce allowed an infield single to junior outfielder Tripp Myers before getting Stevens to punch out. After allowing a walk to Cyr, a passed ball allowed both runners to advance to second and third before Kierce was lifted for senior pitcher
Ethan Errera on a 1-0 count.
Errera's first pitch would be a wild pitch, allowing Myers to score the tying run and then one batter later a Whitney sacrifice fly gave the Blue Jays the lead, 6-5. With the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth, Stevens would plate three more runs on an RBI single and error from Gouveia as Johns Hopkins pulled away to defeat UMass Boston, 9-5.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Aidan Blake finished the game 2-for-4 with a double and a solo home run while scoring twice
- James Stevens led the way for Johns Hopkins with a 3-for-5 afternoon and recording two RBIs
- UMass Boston pitching allowed four wild pitches in Thursday's game
- Head Coach Brendan Egyabroat remains at 399 career wins and is just one shy of reaching the 400-career win mark
WHO'S NEXT
UMass Boston closes their Florida spring break trip tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 PM against FDU-Florham. This will be just the second matchup between the two teams in program history with the first coming back in 2012, a 9-7 win for the Beacons, during their spring break trip that year.
