JHU Baseball Weekly Notes :: Hopkins wraps up regular season by hosting Mary Washington

JHU Baseball Weekly Notes

Hopkins wraps up regular season by hosting Mary Washington

Printer-Friendly Format

E-mail this article

Junior Dan Merzel was named the MVP of the Centennial Conference Tournament on Sunday.

Baseball Home

HEADLINES

Three Current and Former Blue Jays to Represent JHU In 18th Maccabiah Games

Chez Angeloni Signs Free Agent Contract With Red Sox Organization

Johns Hopkins Baseball Season In Review

• Email this to a friend

May 6, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

Recapping the Centennial Conference Tournament:
Hopkins hosted the Centennial Conference Tournament last weekend. The Blue Jays opened with a 9-1 victory over Muhlenberg on Friday before posting a 16-6 win over Franklin & Marshall in the winner's bracket game on Saturday. In Sunday's championship match against Haverford, the Blue Jays trailed 4-1 to start the bottom of the ninth before railing for a 5-4 victory.

Junior second baseman Dan Merzel hit .600 with a team-best six runs scored while senior left fielder Jon Solomon hit .417 with a team-high nine RBIs.

Scouting the Week Ahead:
Hopkins has just one game on its schedule this week. The Blue Jays will host Mary Washington on Tuesday at 2 p.m.

Hopkins is 3-2 in the all-time series with Mary Washington having won the last three meetings in a row.

Team/Individual Notes:

Nine is Just Fine: The Blue Jays captured their second straight and ninth Centennial Conference Title overall on Sunday. That is the most Centennial Conference baseball titles by any team, the next closest is Franklin & Marshall and Ursinus with three apiece.

MVP=Merzel: Junior Dan Merzel started all three games as second base during the tournament and was named the Mike Durgala MVP by the coaches. Merzel hit .600 with six runs scored and had a solid game at second base. The award is named in honor of the former Blue Jay Mike Durgala who was tragically killed in a car accident in August of 2006.

Going Dancin': With Sunday's win in the Centennial Conference Championship, Hopkins earned the conference's automatic qualifier for the NCAA Regional Tournament. The Blue Jays will be making their 15th appearance in the NCAA Regional. The information about the NCAA Regional will be released on Monday, May 12.

Closing in on 200: Senior Rob Pietroforte enters play on Tuesday with 190 career hits. If Pietroforte gets 10 more hits, he will become just the second play in school history to reach 200 hits for his career (John Christ-232).

Holding Runners: Catchers Tony Margve and Joe Borrelli have done a stellar job of holding would be base stealers on this year. Margve has thrown out 11-of-15 stealers while Borrelli has thrown out five would be stealers. They have combined to hold base stealers to just a 44% success rate.

Streaking: The Blue Jays have four players who will bring a hit streak of 15 or more games into Tuesday's action. Pietroforte has connected in 25 straight while Youchak has a hit in 20 consecutive games. Senior Jonas Fester has hit in 18 straight games and 28 dating back to last season while senior Todd Emr has hit in 17 games.

Double Your Pleasure: Hopkins enters Tuesday's game with 121 team doubles. The Blue Jays need just five more doubles to tie the single-season mark they set last year. The Blue Jays have five players with 10+ doubles this season. That group is led by Pietroforte with 18 and Youchak with 17.

Climbing the Polls: Hopkins moved up in both the ABCA/Collegiate Baseball Poll and the NCBWA/D3Baseball.com polls this week. The Blue Jays are now ranked #10 in the ABCA poll and fifth in the D3Baseball.com poll.

I'll Take Three: Pietroforte tied the JHU career triples record with his 13th at Montclair State on April 22. Pietroforte is currently tied with Tom Finegan, who had 13 triples from 1985-1988.

Double Your Pleasure (Part Two): The Blue Jays currently have two players ranked among the top five in career history for doubles at JHU. Fester has 48 doubles to date and needs just two more to tie the JHU and Centennial Conference career record. Pietroforte has 43 doubles in his career.

I'm Honored: Senior Jon Solomon and junior Chez Angeloni were named the Centennial Conference Player and Pitcher of the Week on Monday. Solomon hit .417 with five runs scored and nine RBIs in the three games of the tournament. Angeloni threw his second complete game of the season, this time against Muhlenberg. He allowed just one run and six hits while striking out six.

Dominating the Righties: Right-handed batters are hitting just .257 against the Blue Jays this season. Junior Dave Fioretti has held right-handed opponents to a .143 average while teammates Matt Goldman and Matt Wiegand have held righties to a .200 and .208 average respectively.

With Ducks on the Pond: Hopkins continues to hit well with a runner on third and less then two outs. The Blue Jays have a .730 average in those situations this year. Youchak is hitting .889 in those situations while Emr has a .850 average in the clutch.

Single Season Hits Record: Emr enters play on Tuesday with 69 hits on the season. He needs eight more to match Fester's 77 which were the second most in school history. He needs 12 more to match John Christ who holds the single season record with 81.