BALTIMORE – No. 3 Johns Hopkins scored four runs in the fifth inning to defeat the McDaniel College baseball team 6-5 on Tuesday in the first game of a conference home-and-home.
The Green Terror (20-9, 3-4), who are receiving votes in this week's American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) poll, loaded the bases in the top of the first inning, allowing graduate student
Shane Daly to score the game's first run after junior
DJ Stolba was hit by a pitch.
The 1-0 McDaniel lead held until the fourth, when the Blue Jays (24-4, 7-0) hit a two-run homer to take their first lead of the game. The Green Terror answered with three runs in the fifth inning; senior
Ben Davis reached base on an error, allowing sophomore
Cameron Simon to score the tying run. Sophomore
Thomas Mezzullo drove in Daly on an RBI bunt, and sophomore
Anthony Cerone followed with another RBI-single to score Davis for a 4-2 lead.
Johns Hopkins rallied with four runs in the bottom half of the fifth to take the lead for good. A two-run single tied the game 4-4, and a two-run homer gave the Blue Jays a 6-4 advantage. Daly responded with an RBI-single in the top of the eighth to score Stolba, cutting the deficit down to one. After Hopkins went down in order to end the eighth, the Green Terror could not draw even, falling 6-5 to the third-ranked Blue Jays.
Daly went 2-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored from the leadoff spot while junior
Ethan Haddock also had a two-hit day in four plate appearances. Mezzullo and Cerone each had a base hit and an RBI while Davis and Stolba collected RBIs and a run scored.
Sophomore
Maximus Mullins got the start and the loss on the mound, pitching four innings and allowing two earned runs on four hits while totaling four walks and a strikeout. Sophomore
Kurtis MacKenzie threw 38 pitches in relief, collecting two strikeouts and one walk while only allowing one hit in 3.2 scoreless innings of work.
The Green Terror conclude the home-and-home by hosting the Blue Jays at Preston Field on Friday. First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 pm.