It took a year, but Brian Youchak and Todd Emr proved Johns Hopkins coach Bob Babb?s assessment correct.
Babb was certain his team was just two players away from being good enough to earn its first berth in the Division III World Series in nearly two decades last season ? and he was referring to Youchak and Emr, who were sidelined with injuries for nearly the entire year.
This spring, the duo is back in the lineup and making up for lost time. A year after Johns Hopkins came within a win of advancing to the game?s biggest stage by losingin the Mid-Atlantic Region final, the Blue Jays are one of eight teams competing for the national title this season.
Youchak, an outfielder, and Emr, an infielder, have combined to drive in 111 runs and score 105 to lead Johns Hopkins (38-6) to the double-elimination tournament in Grand Chute, Wis. The Blue Jays punched their ticket by defeating Salisbury, 9-4, to win the South Region. Johns Hopkins faces Adrian (Mich.) College, the Midwest Region champion, on Friday afternoon at 1:15 in its first World Series game since 1989.
“We?re a much deeper team than we were last year,” said Babb, who is 825-286-10 in 29 seasons at Homewood. “This team has dealt with a lot of injuries, but they?ve never gotten too high when they win or too low when they lose.”
Emr, a senior who missed most of last season with a broken right arm, said getting to the World Series means even more to him after watching the team come so close last season, when the Blue Jays lost in the playoffs to eventual-national champion Kean (N.J.) University.
“This season has been the culmination of four years of work for the senior class,” said Emr, who is batting .476 with 54 runs and a team-best 64 RBI. “Having to sit on the sidelines and watch us come so close last year was not fun at all.”
Youchak, a sophomore, leads Johns Hopkins with a .500 batting average to go along with his 57 RBI, 61 runs scored and 21 stolen bases after missing all of last season with a torn tendon in his toe. But this spring, he has teamed with Emr, senior outfielder Rob Pietroforte (.484, 48 RBI) and senior infielder Jonas Fester (.438, 32 RBI) to power an offense that leads the nation in batting average (.386) and runs per game (11.5).
“Every one of the 16 seniors on this team wanted to accomplish this goal of getting to the World Series since we got here,” Pietroforte said. “Finally, we?re here, but we?re not content. We feel like we have a good chance to win the whole thing. That?s why we?re there.”
