May 17, 2008
Contact: Mike Christie, Assistant Commissioner

Johns Hopkins Advances to Championship Game By Eliminating Lynchburg

(DANVILLE, VA) - Senior Jon Solomon’s two-out double scored Jonas Fester from first and lifted second-seeded Johns Hopkins University past third-seeded Lynchburg College, 7-5, in the NCAA Division III South Region Baseball Tournament at Legion Field Saturday. The win sends the Blue Jays (37-6) to the tournament final against top-seeded Salisbury University later Saturday. The winner earns a trip to the NCAA Division III Baseball World Series.

Senior Rob Pietroforte raised his tournament batting average to .533 with three hits and drove in the Blue Jays’ first four runs. Fester finished with a game-high four hits and one RBI. Reliever Pat Steffee evened his record a 2-2 with 1.2 innings of scoreless relief.

Lynchburg’s Cameron Grant went three-for-four with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the first, his third of the season. Ryan Litz was two-for-three with three RBIs.

The see-saw contest featured three ties and two lead changes. Lynchburg (32-13) tied the game for the third and final time in the bottom of the eighth on Litz’ RBI single to left center through a drawn-in infield. He scored Matt Winston from third base after the senior worked a leadoff walk from reliever Joe Zaccaria, took second on a wild pitch and moved to third on Mark Carlson’s sacrifice. Steffee replaced Zaccaria and loaded the bases with two out for Ronnie LaBrie, the Hornets’ top hitter, who flew out to shallow right field to end the inning.

Lynchburg took its only lead on Litz’ two-run, two-out triple in the bottom of the sixth, which made the score 4-3.

The Blue Jays answered with two in the top of the seventh off of reliever D.W. Moore. Nate Adelman drew a leadoff walk and took second on Dan Merzel’s bunt single to second. Brian Youchak flew out to left field for the first out of the inning, but Pietroforte singled to left for his fourth RBI of the game, which tied the score at 4-4. Merzel took third on Todd Emr’s fly out to center before Fester slapped an 0-2 pitch into left field to score Merzel with the go-ahead run. Jared Millner replaced Moore and induced Jon Solomon into an inning-ending fly ball.

Johns Hopkins opened the scoring on Pietroforte’s RBI double down the right-field line that scored Merzel from first.  Hornets’ starter Joe Devlin avoided further damage by retiring Emr on a line drive to LaBrie at shortstop, who tagged out Pietroforte at second.

The Blue Jays took a short-lived 2-1 lead with an unearned run in the third. Adelman led off the inning with a single just under diving second baseman Kyle Bradley. Lynchburg’s Winston mishandled Brian Youchak’s one-out drive to left-center field, which put runners at second and third. Pietroforte followed with a sacrifice fly to short right field, scoring Adelman.

NOTES: Lynchburg turned three double plays in the first six innings… Youchak extended his hitting streak to 25 games… Emr went 0-for-5, ending a 20-game hitting streak… Johns Hopkins and Salisbury did not meet during the regular season as their April 29 contest was rained out.