LANCASTER, Pa. -- Franklin & Marshall scored a come-from-behind victory in the first game before cruising in the second in a doubleheader takedown of No. 10 Johns Hopkins on Sunday afternoon in Centennial Conference (CC) action. The Diplomats improved to 2-0, 2-0 CC following the 2-1 and 7-0 victories, while the Blue Jays dropped to 0-2, 0-2 CC.

Game 1: F&M 2, Johns Hopkins 1

The Blue Jays struck first, as a leadoff walk came all the way around to put a run on the board in the first. Johns Hopkins played station-to-station baseball, turning a sequence of walk-single-single into a 1-0 lead.

Starting pitcher Matt Devlin settled down after the opening stanza, allowing just two more hits the rest of the way in what turned into an eight inning, four hit, nine strikeout gem. Devlin was at his best early on, striking out four consecutive batters between the second and third innings.

Despite putting the leadoff batter on first base in the six out of seven innings, F&M was stymied until the eighth, when they put together a string of solid contact. J.J. Freeman led off the inning with a single. Following a fly out and a Dan Baroff walk, Don DiLoreto knotted the game at 1-1 following a single of his own, scoring Freeman. A pitching change did little to break the Diplomat hitting, as Will Samuel punched a single back up the middle, scoring pinch runner Drew Butera.

Stephen Turzai shut the door in the top of the 9th for his first save of the year.

In all, seven Diplomats combined for seven hits, drawing three walks from Blue Jay pitching.

Game 2: F&M 7, Johns Hopkins 0

The Diplomats put two on the board in the second inning, loading the bases with nobody out after a Will Samuel double, a Tommy Denlinger walk, and a Drew Butera single. After two straight strikeouts, F&M turned over the lineup to J.J. Freeman, who singled through the left side to score two for a 2-0 lead.

F&M tacked on four more in the bottom half of the fifth as Tommy Denlinger and Drew Butera hit back-to-back RBI singles for a 4-0 edge. After the Diplomats loaded the bases again, Matt Gluck slapped a single to score two more and give F&M a 6-0 advantage.

Jakob Hoffman added an exclamation point in the seventh, knocking one over the fence in his first career at-bat for a 7-0 lead.

Kyle Roche (1-0) twirled a solid six innings, allowing only two hits while punching out nine. Greg Nieskens and Thomas McLaughlin combined for three innings to complete the shutout.

Drew Butera paced the lineup with a 2-for-4 effort, knocking in one and scoring once. Steven Rizzo also finished with a two-hit afternoon after being inserted mid-way through.

Up Next 

F&M continues their abbreviated conference-only schedule on Saturday, March 27th with a doubleheader against Ursinus. Opening pitches are slated for 12:00pm and 3:00pm.