BALTIMORE, Md. - The Haverford College baseball team handily defeated top-seeded Johns Hopkins, 9-4, in a Centennial Conference playoff matchup on Saturday. With the win, the Fords will advance to Sunday's championship and look to be crowned the conference champions for the third time since 2012.

Starting pitcher Stephen Ridings was brilliant, as he has been all season, throwing 7.2 innings and striking out 10 in the process. With those 10 punch outs, Ridings now sits at second in the Centennial Conference with 76 on the season. The junior was almost untouchable for the first seven innings of the contest, giving up just three hits and one run in those frames. John Masella came in to relieve him in the eighth inning, finishing the game and pitching a scoreless 1.1 innings. 

The Fords entered the game hitting 11 home runs in their last three contests. Third baseman Spencer Sohmer extended the streak to four games with a two-run blast in the first inning to set the tone. His home run scored freshman Ethan Lee-Tyson, who had led off the game with a single and would reach base three more times in the game.

Lee-Tyson could not be any hotter at the plate right now. The leadoff hitter went 4-for-6 in the game with a double, a stolen base, four runs scored, and one batted in. In his last three games, he's a combined 10-for-14 with 11 runs scored, two home runs, and six RBI. In this game, his offense helped propel a Haverford offense that had 16 total hits.

Haverford was relentless offensively, building a 7-0 lead as late as the bottom of the sixth inning. Sohmer, Ben Verducci, Zach Taylor, and Nick Ott all had multi-hit games.

Coach Dave Beccaria's team heads into Sunday in the driver's seat. Because the Centennial Conference follows a double-elimination procedure during the playoffs, Haverford will need just one win in its two games to be crowned champions. They will face the Johns Hopkins on Sunday with a scheduled 12 p.m. start time.