Muhlenberg will open the Centennial Conference playoffs with a

Carlo is sixth in team history with 144 career hits.

3:00 game at Johns Hopkins tomorrow. Tomorrow’s other first-round matchup has Haverford traveling to Franklin & Marshall. Those two squads will join the Mules in Baltimore for the remainder of the double-elimination tournament, beginning Saturday morning.

Johns Hopkins (30-5), ranked seventh by D3baseball.com and 13th by the American Baseball Coaches Association, has won 26 of its last 28 games since starting the season 4-3. One of those losses came to Muhlenberg (20-18) in the second game of an April 6 doubleheader.

Both games of that twinbill were among the most competitive the Blue Jays played while breezing to a 16-2 CC record. The opening game ended with Hopkins ahead 7-6 and the potential tying run on third base. The Mules came back to win the nightcap, 8-5.

“If we had gotten smacked around by them, it would make a difference in the playoffs,” said senior Joe Carlo. “But we played with them both games.”

The split was a turning point in the season for Muhlenberg,

After allowing three runs in the first inning against Johns Hopkins in the first game of the regular-season doubleheader, Cresta allowed just two earned runs in the last six frames.

which was 3-4 in the CC up to that point but had played six of the seven games against the other three playoff teams. The Mules captured eight of their last 11 CC contests to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2003.

“Beating them was a huge jump in confidence,” said Carlo. “We knew we had the toughest teams in the league year-in and year-out right off the bat, and we knew we put ourselves in good position [by splitting with Hopkins]. We hit a streak after that.”

In a double-elimination tournament, Muhlenberg will still be alive if it loses to Hopkins, but that route would be very difficult for the Mules, who have leaned heavily on two pitchers this year. Sophomore Phil Cresta (8-2) and junior Matthew Ordog (6-2) have combined for 14 of the team’s 20 wins, with the rest of the starters accounting for only three.

Cresta in particular has enjoyed an outstanding campaign, earning second-team All-CC honors after tying the school record for wins. He was 6-1 with a 2.64 ERA in CC regular-season starts and is unscored upon in his last 20 1/3 innings pitched on the road, but he will have to deal with a Blue Jay lineup that leads Division III in batting average (.394), scoring (11.8 runs per game) and slugging percentage (.608).

“Phil is going to throw a great game,” said Carlo.

Johns Hopkins has won five of the last seven CC titles, and Muhlenberg has done well for its part in its past playoff appearances, reaching the championship series in both 2002 and 2003. Of course, that was before any of the current players were Mules.

“I haven’t played in the playoffs since high school, so I’m really looking forward to it,” said Carlo. “Every inning, every at-bat, every pitch is important. The atmosphere is very exciting, and that’s something to be motivated by.”
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