Centennial Conference Tournament Information
WESTMINSTER, Md. – The Haverford College baseball team banged out 15 hits en route to an 11-4 victory over the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays in the first round of the Centennial Conference playoffs at Preston Field.
Senior starting pitcher Casey Fox helped himself out with a RBI double to left center in the top of the first inning. Three batters later, junior Zach Taylor ripped a base hit through the left side of the infield to score Fox. Two innings later, freshman Mike Schmandt doubled home sophomore Yannick Villanueva to put the Fords in front by three.
Fox held the Blue Jays without a hit until the third inning. During that inning, Hopkins put runners on second and third with two out, but a ground out ended the threat. The senior had a two-run double in the next half inning and Schmandt's RBI knock gave the Fords their sixth run of the contest. The No. 1 seeded Blue Jays loaded the bases with no out in the bottom of the fourth, but Fox escaped the jam with two pop ups and a ground out.
The Fords added a single run in the fifth inning on a RBI single by senior Marley Randazzo and then Blue Jays finally got on the scoreboard with a bases loaded walk in their half of the inning. Junior Nick Ott hit his fifth career home run in the sixth inning while Johns Hopkins had back-to-back sacrifice flies to set the score at 9-3.
After Hopkins added a single run in the seventh inning, Haverford tacked on two more insurance runs in the ninth inning on a Fox's RBI single and Villanueva sacrifice fly to wrap up the scoring.
Fox led the Fords offensively with three hits and four RBI. He also went six innings and allowed three earned runs to pick up his second win of the season. Villanueva, Schmandt, Randazzo, junior George Hatamiya and freshman Ben Furlong all had two hits each. Eight different Fords picked up hits in the contest while five Haverford players scored at least two runs. The Fords finished with six extra base hits in the win.
With the victory, the baseball team improves to 15-18 overall while Johns Hopkins drops to 23-10-1 this season. The Fords will now take on Franklin and Marshall on Saturday after the Johns Hopkins and McDaniel contest. More information on the Centennial Conference Tournament, check out the link above.