May 17, 2002
Box Score
Boyertown, PA -
The Johns Hopkins baseball team jumped out to a 3-0 first-inning lead and never trailed en route to an 8-4 win over Kean University in an elimination game in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament Friday afternoon at Bear Stadium.
With the win, Hopkins advances to play in the eighth game of the regional Saturday at 3 p.m. Depending on the outcome of Friday's other games, the Blue Jays will either face the loser of the Alvernia-DeSales game or Worcester State. Kean finished its season with a 33-12 record.
The Blue Jays wasted no time in taking control, putting up three runs in the opening frame. Junior designated hitter Jay Cieri (Pine Brook, NJ/Montville) and senior center fielder Mike DePalma (Norwalk, CT/Norwalk) delivered consecutive one-out singles, and after a strikeout sophomore left fielder Craig Cetta (Randolph, NJ/Randolph) was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Junior right fielder Joe Urban (Nanticoke, PA/Bishop Hoban) then singled to plate Cieri, and sophomore shortstop Carl Ippolito (Ewing, NJ/Pennington School) followed with a two-run single to left field.
Hopkins added a run in the fourth, as senior second baseman
Karl Sineath (West Chester, PA/West Chester Henderson) singled to open the inning, stole second, and scored on a single by DePalma. The Blue Jays made it a 5-0 game in the sixth as Sineath reached on an error and was driven home on a Cieri single.
Meanwhile, Hopkins junior starter Jeremy Brown (Baltimore, MD/McDonogh School) shut out the Cougars on just one hit through the first five innings before running into trouble in the sixth. Walks to Mike O'Donnell, Felix Urena, and Chris Eickhort loaded the bases with two outs, and Joe Cornachia put Kean on the board with an infield single. John Pederson followed with a two-run single to cut the Hopkins lead to 5-3 at the end of six.
The Blue Jays responded, though, with two runs in the seventh. Senior first baseman Ben Taylor (Pawling, NY/Trinity-Pawling) opened the frame with a single, and Cetta reached on an error to put runners on first and second with nobody out. After Urban bunted the runners over, Ippolito delivered again with a two-run single to put Hopkins up by four.
Senior Neal Lynch (Pennington, NJ/Notre Dame) relieved Brown in the seventh and allowed just two hits over the next two innings to maintain the four-run lead, and Urban added an insurance run by doubling home Cetta in the top of the ninth. Pederson led off the bottom of the ninth with a home run off of Lynch to make it an 8-4 game, but sophomore Sven Stafford (Evanston, IL/Evanston) entered after the homer to close out the Cougars.
The Blue Jays improved to 35-8 this season, the second highest win total in Hopkins history. The 1998 team holds the single-season record with a 36-4 mark.
Line Score 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Johns Hopkins (35-8) 3 0 0 1 0 1 2 0 1 - 8 12 1
Kean (33-12) 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 - 4 6 3
Battery
Johns Hopkins - Brown, Lynch (7), Stafford (9) and Prevas
Kean - Baykowski, Treonze (6), Tambini (9) and Eickhorst
Extra-Base Hits
2B - Urban (JHU), Senese (Kean)
HR - Pederson (Kean)
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