Normoyle Goes 2-for-4 with RBI in Loss

BALTIMORE, MD - Brian Youchak went 3-for-4 with three RBI and a run scored as host No. 1 ranked Johns Hopkins topped visiting Washington College, 8-2, in the first day of the 2010 Centennial Conference Baseball Tournament this afternoon at JHU Baseball Field. The Blue Jays improved to 35-3 overall, while the Shoremen dropped to 17-14 with the loss.

Johns Hopkins put runners on first and third with two outs in the bottom of the third inning, but Washington pitcher Shane Mattingly (Ellicott City, MD/Centennial) got Youchak to ground into a force play to end the threat and keep the game scoreless.

The Blue Jays broke through in the in the bottom of the fifth with three runs to take a 3-0 lead. Hopkins put runners on first and second with one out. Mattingly got Sam Wernick on an infield fly to second for the second out, but Chris Huisman flared a single down the left field line to score Lee Bolyard for the game's first run. Youchak then singled to right field to score two and put the hosts up 3-0.

The Shoremen got their first hit in the top of the sixth when freshman Kyle Aldrich (Warren, NJ/Watchung Hills Regional) reached on an infield single to second base, but two strikeouts and a pick off ended the frame for Washington.

Stephen Bejsiuk extended the lead to 4-0 in the bottom of the sixth when he singled to center with two outs that chased in Jesse Sikorski.

WC got two runs in the top of the seventh to trim the lead in half to 4-2. The Shoremen got back to back singles by freshman Sean Connole (Mt. Airy, MD/St. John's Catholic) and sophomore John Rolewicz (Bear, DE/Salesianum) to put runners on first and second with nobody out and both would move up a base on a passed ball. Connole would get Washington on the board on a sacrifice fly by senior Matt Boucher (Alexandria, VA/Bishop Ireton) to cut the Hopkins lead to 4-1. Washington trimmed the Blue Jays cushion to 4-2 when sophomore Ryan Normoyle (Mount Laurel, NJ/Lenape) doubled to left to drive in Rolewicz. Normoyle's two-bagger would chase Hopkins' starting pitcher Alex Eliopoulos out of the ballagame and he would be replaced by Andrew Pevsner. Pevsner would retire both of the batters he faced in the seventh to keep the Blue Jays up by two runs.

In the bottom of the seventh, Hopkins scored four times to gain an 8-2 edge, Youchak set the Hopkins all-time hits record with his 233rd career hit with an RBI single through the right side with one away to score James Teta to make it 5-2. It was the final batter that Mattingly would face in the contest. The next batter, Dave Kahn was hit and it loaded the bases for the Blue Jays. Sikorski knocked in Wernick to make it 6-2. John Swarr then delivered a two-run single through the left side to push the bulge to 8-2 and close the scoring in the frame.

Washington got runners on second and third with one out in the top of the eighth but could not score.

Eliopoulos got the win and improves to 7-0. He struck out eight, allowed four hits and gave up two runs in 6.1 innings of work. At the dish for Hopkins, Bejsiuk, Sikorski, Swarr and Teta each had two hits with Swarr driving in two and Teta scoring twice.

For WC, Mattingly took the loss on the mound and drops to 5-2. Normoyle led the Shoremen offense with two hits and an RBI.

The Shoremen return to action tomorrow against Swarthmore in day two of the conference tournament. First pitch is at 9:00 a.m. with the winner returning to play at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon and the loser being eliminated from the tournament.