York, Pa. (May 19, 2017) – Johns Hopkins University (38-6), ranked No. 4 in the nation and top-seeded in the Mid-Atlantic Region, scored six runs in the top of the ninth inning for a 13-9 comeback win over #5 Alvernia University (29-14-2) Friday evening in game seventh of the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional at PEOPLESBank Park.
The Jays opened the ninth with a hit by pitch then four straight batters reached tying the score at 9-9 and loading the bases with no one out.
Kyle Gaynor made a great diving stop in on the grass at third and cut down a runner at the plate, but Mike Smith looped a single up the middle to give the Jays a 10-9 lead.
Ryan Orgielewicz lifted a fly ball deep to center that caromed off
Colin Rieger's glove near the fence clearing the bases. Orgielewicz was caught in a short rundown at third on a comebacker to the mound, and the inning ended on a fly ball in foul territory down the line in right.
Alvernia went in order in the bottom of the ninth and moves to the losers bracket where it will face former MAC Commonwealth rival Elizabethtown College in an elimination game at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
Gaynor was 3-for-5 for the Crusaders with a pair of runs scored.
Nathan Sides and
Franco Esposito both had two hits and two RBIs.
Dillon Dunne threw six innings and allowed six runs (five earned) on eight hits with six strikeouts.
Antonio Baglivo allowed five runs (three earned) in two innings and took the loss.
Hopkins moves on to the winners bracket final on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. and will face the winner of Friday night's game between Wheaton (Mass.) and Shenandoah.
Dunne opened the game with a punch out of Conor Reynolds, but Brian Lin followed with a single to left center and stole second. Smith hit a ground ball inside the bag at third that Gaynor couldn't pick and Lin scored the first run of the game.
Orgielewicz, the Hopkins DH, powered a 2-0 pitch into the fun park in left center for his first of two home runs in the game, and the Jays had an early 3-0 lead.
Tommy Mee then reached on an error and stole second, but Dunne clamped down getting Jon Hayden swinging and struck out the side when Mike Eberle went down swinging.
The Crusaders' offense got right to work in support of Dunne with Rieger ripping a double to left center on the second pitch he saw.
Mike Cirilli fouled off six pitches in a 10-pitch at bat before grounding out to first to move Rieger up to third.
Sides delivered Rieger with a single to right and three batters later Sides scored on a wild pitch.
Franco Esposito drove in the third run of the inning on a chopper to third and the Crusaders had it back to level at 3-3 after one.
Dunne worked around a leadoff single in the second and Gaynor singled and scored on an error in the bottom of the second to put the Crusaders up 4-3. Alvernia drew back-to-back walks to push across a fifth run, and
Ben Dubas lifted a sacrifice fly to center to make it 6-3, Crusaders.
Alvernia tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the fourth.
Matt Briner was off on the first move from Hopkins reliever Josh Hejka with runners on the corners, but first baseman Joe Conlon's throw down to second sailed into left allowing
Ian Shaffer to score.
Esposito blooped an 0-2 pitch into right center to score Briner and the Crusaders held an 8-3 lead after four.
Orgielewicz hit an opposite field homer off the top of the wall in right with two out in the top of the fifth, and the Jays chased in two more runs in the top of the seventh for an 8-6 score.
Conlon and Reynolds opened the inning with back-to-back doubles and the Crusaders turned the ball over to Baglivo with runners on first and third with one out. Baglivo walked Smith on four pitches then walked Orgielewicz to force in the sixth run.
Alvernia's senior reliever knuckled down with the bases loaded and nobody out getting three straight strikeouts to limit the damage.
Gaynor pulled a double down the line in left to lead off the bottom of the seventh and was at third with one out after a sac bunt from Rieger. Hopkins went to the pen for reliever Austin Sutor to face Cirilli already with a 2-2 count, and Cirilli executed perfectly on a two-strike squeeze play to bring in Gaynor.
Hopkins scored an unearned run in the top of the eighth to pull within two at 9-7.
Alvernia falls to 4-5-1 all time versus Hopkins and 3-2 in Regional games.
#1 Johns Hopkins 13, #5 Alvernia 9
