BALTIMORE - Sophomore Patrick Kelly hit his first two home runs of the season, finishing the day with four RBIs as the McDaniel College baseball team lost 18-8 to No. 1 Johns Hopkins in the second round of the 2025 Centennial Conference Baseball Championship on Thursday.

Kelly joins sophomore Shea McKenna, junior Ben Davis and sophomore Ethan Haddock as the only McDaniel batters to hit multiple home runs in a single game this season. 

The Green Terror (19-21-1, 9-9) opened up a 4-2 lead in the second inning before a middle innings rally from the top-seeded Blue Jays (37-3, 17-1). 

Johns Hopkins scored first on a two-run single in the first inning. Sophomore DJ Stolba responded in the second with an RBI single to score freshman Thomas Mezzullo before Kelly launched a three-run blast to left center field, hitting his first homer of the year and giving McDaniel a 4-2 lead.

The Blue Jays struck back with a four-run second, cutting the deficit to one on an RBI double and taking the lead 6-4 on a three-run homer of their own. A solo shot in the third increased the lead to 7-4 before a big fourth inning allowed the Blue Jays to pull away.

An RBI double grew the lead to four before another three-run homer put 11 runs on the board. Johns Hopkins hit two more home runs to make the lead 14-4 after four, with the Blue Jays hitting three homers in the fourth inning alone.

Johns Hopkins added four more runs in the fifth before McDaniel clawed back with a late rally. Kelly started the comeback effort with a solo homer in the seventh, his second round-tripper of the afternoon. McKenna was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score another run, and back-to-back bases loaded walks drawn by Mezzullo and graduate student Joey Hubinger made the final score 18-8.

Kelly was perfect on the day, hitting two homers in his only two plate appearances for four RBIs and three runs scored. Mezzullo had a two-hit game as well, going 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. Stolba had an RBI hit while Hubinger and McKenna also finished with RBIs on the day.

Freshman Preston Yost took the loss in relief, striking out three Blue Jay batters and walking five in 2.2 innings of work. Senior Ryan Kelly got the start and threw one inning, allowing two earned runs on two hits. Eight Green Terror pitchers saw the mound in the loss, collecting six strikeouts and eight walks.

The Green Terror will look to keep their season alive on Saturday against third-seeded Haverford in an elimination game. First pitch is scheduled for 10 a.m. from Babb Field in Baltimore.