The Muhlenberg baseball team jumped out to an early lead and made a late comeback bid, but could not overcome three Johns Hopkins home runs and fell, 12-7, in the first round of the Centennial Conference playoffs.
 
The Mules (19-19) advance to play Franklin & Marshall, an 8-2 loser to Swarthmore, in an elimination game on Saturday morning at 9:00 at Swarthmore. The winner of that game will advance to take on the winner of the Swarthmore-Johns Hopkins game at approximately 4:00 that afternoon.

Muhlenberg faced a tough assignment in Blue Jay starter Alex Ross, who came in with a CC-leading 1.82 ERA, shut out the Mules on four hits a month ago and allowed an earned run in only one of his five CC starts. But the Mules needed only four batters to get on the board, with sophomore Billy Brittingham hitting a long single to drive home freshman Robert Cappadona.

Hopkins (28-12) tied the score with a home run in the bottom of the first before Muhlenberg took another lead with two in the top of the second. Junior Chris Grillo drove in the first run with a double - his 10th extra-base hit in the last eight games - and scored on a two-out single by sophomore John Serruto.

Three-run homers by the Blue Jays in the third and fifth innings put the Mules in a 9-3 hole. In the seventh, though, junior Matt Riebesell doubled in a run and Brittingham followed with his fourth homer of the season, a three-run blast that made it 9-7.

Hopkins scored three times in the bottom of the seventh to widen its lead, and Muhlenberg went down quietly in the eighth and ninth.

With his four RBI, Brittingham (pictured above) tied a Mule postseason record. Riebesell's two hits gave him 101 for his career.

Senior Eric Reitmeyer had two singles, and Cappadona reached base three times, scoring twice.

Sophomore Matthew D'Ambrosia fanned six in 4 2/3 innings to increase his season total to 75, one short of the school record.