Baseball drops two tough games to #18 Johns Hopkins

Baseball drops two tough games to #18 Johns Hopkins

(Aberdeen, Maryland) On Day Two of the Rivier University Baseball team's southern trip, the Raiders had an early test against #18 Johns Hopkins University. In the end, it was the Blue Jays who bested the Raiders twice in the double-header by scores of 7-3 and 4-3 but the young Raiders pushed JHU to the limit all day.

Game One: #18 Johns Hopkins 7, Rivier 3

Sophomore Nicholas Pica (Hampstead, NH) pitched five innings of ball allowing the Blue Jays to score five runs on nine hits as the Raiders dropped game one against JHU, 7-3.

After giving up three runs in the bottom of the second, the Raiders came storming back in the fourth with three of their own. Freshman Drew Neely (Lakeland, Florida) had a huge base knock to right to plate two runs before sophomore David Feole (Sciuate, RI) tied the game with his own RBI single to right.

However, JHU was able to plate single runs in the fourth and fifth to take the lead before junior Lucas Palma (Bristol, Conn.) allowed a two run home run in the eighth inning for a 7-3 final.

Junior David Cusack (Newburyport, Mass.) went 2-for-4 and sophomore Marc Medeiros (Arlington, Mass.) added the other hit to account for the Raiders' six hits. Sophomores Edward Soucie (South Ryegate, Vermont) and Spencer Aguiar (Malden, Mass.) pitched an inning each of scoreless baseball in the loss.

Game Two: #18 Johns Hopkins 4, Rivier 3

Junior J.J. Montello (Nashua, NH) had three hits and knocked in two runs as the Raiders pushed the #20 team in the country to the limit in game two of the day's double-header.

Junior Steven Carlberg (Dover, NH) held the Blue Jays to four runs over 6 1/3 innings in his first start of the season. Aguiar and Palma finished the game not allowing a run.

Trailing 3-0 after three complete innings, the Raiders chipped back into the game with single runs in the fourth, fifth and seventh. After surrendering the lead in the home half of the seventh, sophomore Jeremy Ball (Swanzey, NH) led off the inning with a triple to right center but was stranded after the next three hitters failed to bring him in.

Next up for the Raiders will be the University of Mary Washington. Game one of the three game set will take place tomorrow afternoon at 2pm with sophomore Matthew Keefe (Bradford, Mass.) on the hill. The final two games will be on Monday afternoon on the Fredericksburg, Virginia campus.