Despite a four-hit game from senior Matt Riebesell, the Muhlenberg baseball team fell to 21st-ranked Johns Hopkins, 14-4, in the opening round of the Centennial Conference playoffs.

The Mules (20-18) will face Haverford, a 2-0 loser to Franklin & Marshall, in an elimination game on Saturday morning. The winner of that game will face the loser of the Franklin & Marshall-Johns Hopkins game later that day.

Muhlenberg jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a two-out double by senior Chris Grillo and an RBI single by Riebesell. The Blue Jays (28-11) hit a pair of two-run homers to take a 4-1 advantage before the game was delayed by lightning in the middle of the sixth. 

After play resumed, Hopkins scored five runs in the next two innings to extend its margin to 9-1.

The Mules loaded the bases with nobody out in the eighth and scored all three runners, forcing the Blue Jays to make two pitching changes. Riebesell and junior Jack Avallone hit RBI singles in the inning.

Hopkins hit two more home runs in the bottom of the eighth to account for the final margin.

Riebesell (pictured above) had two doubles and two singles in his second four-hit game of the season. The two doubles increased his career total to 42, putting him alone in first place on the program's all-time list. Riebesell has a school-record 20 two-baggers this season, the most of any Division III catcher.

Junior Brenden Weiss went 2-for-3 with a double.