Winter Haven, FL (March 25) --- The Williams College Ephs would begin a long day of baseball, that included 9 innings of action, against the national powerhouse Johns Hopkins Blue Jays. Frontline starting pitcher Sean Hogan got the ball for the Ephs, being tasked with facing the strong bats of Johns Hopkins.
Hogan would open the game surrendering two runs in the first inning, with only one earned. The Ephs defense struggled behind him throughout the game, letting costly errors extend innings throughout the ballgame. By the bottom of the third the Ephs were ready to jump on the Hopkins pitching, with Kurt Oelschlager earning a walk to open the inning. Ryan Young would bring Oleschlager home to score later that inning on a sacrifice fly, bringing the score to 2-1.
Sean Hogan would go on to pitch five scoreless innings, walking only two guys throughout his outing. After the game, Hogan remarked that "the Hopkins lineup had power throughout their order and will be one of the best hitting teams we faced, but I still had a lot of confidence behind my fastball and slider, mixing in my splitter when needed."
The bottom of the sixth inning would be when the Ephs took the lead, with Ryan Young ripping a double in the right-center gap followed by two singles by Jakob Cohn and Dave Driscoll. Young would score, followed by Jakob Cohn scoring on a passed ball after a Brendan Stannard walk.
James Murry would relieve Hogan in eighth inning, who would come out of the game after throwing seven innings while allowing only one earned run and two unearned, bringing the game to 4-3 Williams. The next two innings would be when Hopkins pulled away, with a costly infield error extending the Hopkins eighth inning, with a 2 run homerun being hit the next batter, followed by a double, bringing the score to 7-4.After scoring one run on a sacrifice fly by Kurt Oelschlager that drove in Matt Brown, the Ephs were back in the field in the top of the ninth, with Hopkins scratching across six more runs to cap off a strong day for them at the plate, beating Williams 13-8.
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