No. 24 Johns Hopkins belts five home runs to down McDaniel

WESTMINSTER, Md. – Chris Wilhelm went 2-for-4 with a pair of two-run home runs to lead No. 24 Johns Hopkins to a 12-4 victory over McDaniel in Centennial Conference (CC) baseball action on Wednesday.

As a team, the Blue Jays (13-8, 6-1 CC) belted five long balls with the assistance of a stiff breeze blowing out to right field for most of the day.

Jimmy Najera (Fort Washington, Md./DeMatha) did some yard work of his own for the Green Terror (10-9, 3-4 CC), belting a pair of two-run homers.

Kevin Neverman led off the visitor second with a double before advancing to third on an Aaron Borenstein single and scoring on a double play for a 1-0 lead.

Zach Small followed with the first of his three hits, putting a shot over the wall in right-center for a two-run lead.

A Jesse Sikorski leadoff homer to right in the sixth inning coupled with the first of Wilhelm's roundtrippers pushed the lead to 5-0.

A Small single and Steve Bejsiuk RBI double made it 6-0 just two batters later.

A Ryan Byrnes (New City, N.Y./Clarkstown North) two-out single and Najera homer to left sliced the deficit to 6-2 but a Borenstein two-out walk and Wilhelm long ball to center reestablished the six-run lead a half-inning later.

A pair of errors, Anthony Venditti double and Borrelli sacrifice fly in the top of the eighth pushed the lead to 10-2.

Ricky LaSota (Burtonsville, Md./Paint Branch) leadoff single in the bottom of the inning and second Najera blast closed the deficit to 10-4 but a Chris Vonderschmidt two-run dinger in the top of the ninth set the final margin.

Patrick Christopher (Union Bridge, N.J./St. John Vianney) added two hits for McDaniel.

The Green Terror concludes the home-and-home series at Johns Hopkins on Friday. Game time is 3:30 p.m.

Score by Inning                                 1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    -     R   H   E
No. 24 Johns Hopkins (13-8, 6-1 CC)  0    2    0    0    0    4    2    2    2    -     12  17  0
McDaniel (10-9, 3-4 CC)                     0    0    0    0    0    2    0    2    0    -     4    11  3

Kevin Gillen, Zach Augustine (8), Sam Eagleson (8) and Zach Small, Scott Barrett (9); Gio Fricchione, Mike Freeman (6), Matt Bejsiuk (9) and Chris Longo. WP: Gillen (3-0). LP: Fricchione (1-2). S: none. SO-BB: Gillen 7-2, Augustine 2-1, Eagleson 2-0; Fricchione 1-2, Freeman 3-2, Bejsiuk 0-0.

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