Release courtesy of Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications

BALTIMORE, MD – For the fourth consecutive year and the fifth time since the NCAA changed the regional tournament format in 2019, the Johns Hopkins baseball team hosted the regional this weekend at Stromberg Stadium.

And for the fifth time in those five instances, the Blue Jays swept through the regional, this time capping their title with a 7-3 win over Pomona Pitzer on Sunday afternoon. With the win, the Blue Jays improve to 36-9 on the year and a remarkable 15-0 in regional tournament games played at home since 2019; including five games in the 2021 regional at Northwestern (MN), the Blue Jays are 19-1 in the NCAA Regional games since 2019.
 
After working through a middle-inning pitching duel and nursing a 3-2 lead entering the bottom of the seventh, the Blue Jays tacked on four big runs on the strength of a pair of two-run home runs courtesy of Alex Shane and Lukas Geer. Shane's blast to right brought home Jacob Harris, who had singled, and Geer's towering shot to left center plated himself and William Jaun, who had walked, to give the Blue Jays the five-run cushion.

As it turned out, that was more than enough support for a Blue Jay pitching staff that allowed just five hits on the day.
 
Early on, the Blue Jays touched Sagehen starter Dean Hoshide for two runs in the bottom of the second to grab an early 2-0 lead. A Shane Keough single to right chased home Clay Hartje, who had walked, and Keough scampered home on a Damian Brown single to left. The Sagehens avoided allowing a big inning as Hamilton Adams was thrown out at the plate on the Keough single and a Harris fly ball into the corner in right was chased down nicely by Kai Gonzaga to end the inning.
 
Pomona (33-14) got one back quickly in the top of the third on a Peter Savas home run to left off Blue Jay starter Ryan Anderson with two outs. The hit was the first of the game for the Sagehens and one of three solo home runs they'd hit on the day.
 
The Sagehens pulled even in the fifth as Landon Hu took Anderson's fourth offering of the inning deep over the fence in right and they had a golden chance to grab the lead an inning later as they had runners on first and second with nobody out, but Blue Jay reliever William Boneno induced a double play and then struck out Tanner DeGrazia to end the threat.

The deadlock lasted into the bottom of the sixth, when Jaun launched a rocket to right center that gave the Blue Jays the 3-2 lead.

Pomona stranded a runner in scoring position in the seventh when Boneno hit the first batter of the inning, but then worked a pop up and fly out before striking out Jack Gold to close out the inning and maintain the 3-2 cushion.
 
Two, two-run home runs later and the Blue Jays had the 7-2 lead that was never seriously threatened.
 
Boneno turned the game over to fellow senior Cole Jefferson in the ninth. DeGrazia greeted Jefferson by launching a solo home run to left and Greg Pierantoni followed with a single, but the Blue Jays turned a 6-4-3 double play one batter later and Will Parker flied out to end the game and seal JHU's fourth consecutive trip the NCAA Super Regional.
 
The NCAA will announce the site of next weekend's Super Regionals later tonight or on Monday.  Johns Hopkins will play the winner of the Tufts Regional; Claremont and Kean will meet later today in that title game.
 
Inside the Box Score – Johns Hopkins
• Shane paced the Blue Jays at the plate as he was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and one run scored.
 
• Keough (2-for-4, 1 run, 1 RBI) and Hamilton Adams (2-for-4) added multi-hit games to power a 12-hit attack.
 
• Johns Hopkins has collected 10 or more hits in 26 of 45 games this season and has scored six or more runs in 37 of 45.
 
• Boneno got the win as he worked three scoreless innings and allowed just one hit with two strikeouts.
 
• Luke Baker collected one hit and has reached base safely in 37 of the last 39 games.
 
• The three home runs the Blue Jays hit boost this season total to 103 – that is tied for the fifth-highest single-season total in NCAA Division III history.  This was also the 29^th time this season the Blue Jays have hit two or more home runs in a game.