Ninth Inning Heroics Push Hopkins into Championship Game

Blue Jays Making First Appearance in National Championship Game

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Senior Jonas Fester singled in the winning run on Monday afternoon.

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May 26, 2008

Box Score

APPLETON, WI - Senior shortstop Jonas Fester's (Dallas, TX/Syosset (NY)) one-out single through the drawn in infield lifted the Johns Hopkins baseball team to a 12-11 win over Wisconsin-Whitewater at the College World Series on Monday afternoon. The Blue Jays (41-7) broke the school record for wins in a season and advance to Tuesday's National Championship game against the Trinity Bantams.

Hopkins will need two wins over Trinity on Tuesday to capture the national title.

Tied 11-11 entering the bottom of the ninth, senior left fielder Jon Solomon (Fairfax, VA/Riverdale Baptist) led off with a double and sophomore DH Chris Huisman (Davidsonville, MD/Archbishop Spalding) drew the intentional walk. Pinch hitter Dan Merzel (Hopkinton, MA/Hopkinton) then laid a bunt just inside the third base line and was able to beat it out, loading the bases. After Wisconsin-Whitewater got the first out on a force at the plate, Fester stepped in and ripped his fifth hit of the day up the middle to score Huisman and give the Blue Jays the win.

The two teams started the scoring early in this one as Hopkins struck for a run in the bottom of the first only to see the Warhawks answer with a run of their own in the top of the second.

Hopkins went back on top 3-1 with two runs in the bottom of the third. Senior catcher Tony Margve (Randolph, NJ/Randolph) had an RBI infield single in the frame for the Blue Jays.

The two teams traded runs in the fourth inning to make it a 6-4 game in favor of the Blue Jays after four complete innings of play. The Warhawks tied the game with two runs in the top of the fifth on RBI singles from Kevin Zalnis and Ben Prather.

The Blue Jays took a 9-6 lead in the bottom of the sixth as the big hit came on senior center fielder Rob Pietroforte's (Brooklyn, NY/Berkeley Carroll) double to right field that scored two. The Warhawks once again answered in the seventh as they loaded the bases and Joe Munn stroked a two-out triple to right field to score three.

Hopkins went back on top 11-9 in the seventh with a two-run single from Fester. Wisconsin-Whitewater answered with two runs in the eighth to make it an 11-11 game.

Sophomore Matt Wiegand (San Diego, CA/Mt. Carmel) picked up his third win of the season after throwing 1.1 innings of scoreless relief. Senior Ryan Kuhlman (Hicksville, NY/Bethpage) started the game and gave up four runs in the first four innings. Fellow senior Joe Zaccaria (Manhasset, NY/Manhasset) threw the middle 3.2 innings of the contest.

Jacobsen took the loss for Wisconsin-Whitewater after giving up three runs in his 2.1 innings of work.

Fester finished 5-for-6 with three runs scored and three RBIs. His double in the contest was the 51st of his career, that is the JHU and Centennial Conference career doubles record. Solomon was 4-for-5 with a run scored while Emr was 3-for-5.

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