BALTIMORE - One run was already up on the board and the Haverford College baseball team had the bases loaded with one out in the top of the ninth inning where they trailed by four, but Johns Hopkins University recorded the final two outs of the game to end the late threat and win the 2011 Centennial Conference championship game, 10-6, Sunday at the Johns Hopkins Baseball Diamond.
Mike Galetta lashed a one-out double to right-center field to start the ninth-inning rally for Haverford (32-8), then moved over to third on Jeremy Zoll's single up the middle. The Fords' next batter, Bobby Bailey, singled up the middle to push Galetta home which brought the visitors to within four of the host Blue Jays (25-11).
Louis DeRosa drew a walk off Hopkins' Aaron Schwartz to load the bases but the reliever induced a short fly ball to right for the second out then recorded a strikeout for the final out to earn the save and clinch the conference title for the Blue Jays.
The game started out loudly for both teams as the Fords put three runs up on the board in the top of the first to get the early run-fest rolling.
Hopkins starting pitcher Sam Eagleson hit the Fords' first batter, Jake Chaplin, then served up a home run pitch to Charlie Carluccio who lofted the righty's offering over the Haverford team bus parked behind the left field fence. Jeff Butera scored later in the inning, on a DeRosa single to center, for the final run of Haverford's opening inning.
Haverford starter Dan Hochberg suffered a similar fate to Eagleson's first, surrendering a three-run home run to Jeff Lynch after the Blue Jays had already scored once to trim the lead to two.
Hopkins pushed three more runs across the plate after Lynch's homer before reliever Mike Bozzi was able to end the frame with his Fords now trailing 7-3.
Hopkins dug the hole Haverford had to climb out of a little deeper in the second when they added three more runs to push its advantage to seven.
Both Eagleson and Haverford pitcher Patrick Falkoff, who'd come in for Bozzi late in the second, finally quieted their opponents' bats through the middle innings until the Fords scored one in the sixth and another run in the eighth off Eagleson.
Falkoff never let the Blue Jays mount any kind of major threat limiting the home team's batters to just six base-runners over the final six innings.
Eagleson got into to trouble early in the ninth and gave way to Schwartz, but the starter picked up the win to push his season record to 5-1 after going eight and a third innings, allowing six runs on four hits and three walks.
Hochberg (4-1) took the loss for the Fords failing to get out of the first inning. He was charged with four runs off four Hopkins hits. Falkoff threw six and a third scattering four hits, walking three and striking out four.
Carluccio, Zoll, Bailey and Justin Coulter each finished the day with two hits in the loss. Carluccio posted two RBIs and scored once, and Coulter scored both times he reached on a pair of doubles.
The Haverford season may not have ended with Sunday's loss, though, as the Fords are likely one of the teams being talked about behind closed doors for a possible at-large invitation to the NCAA tournament. Those bid will be extended late in the evening on Sunday, May 15 or early in the early morning the following day.