Hopkins to Be Honored at Orioles Game this Friday

[Sonny]

BALTIMORE, MD - The 2007 NCAA Champion Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team will honored at Baltimore's Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Friday night (September 7) in a pre-game ceremony that will preceed the Major League Baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles. As part of the pre-game festivities, Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala will throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Game time is scheduled for 7:05 pm and all returning players and a majority of the seniors from the 2007 team will be on hand. This will be the first time the Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team has ever been honored in this manner.

Pietramala, who played baseball growing up before switching to lacrosse in high school, guided Johns Hopkins to a 13-4 record and the program's ninth NCAA Championship last season. The Blue Jays rebounded from a 4-4 start to win their final nine games of the season and capped their stunning run with a thrilling 12-11 victory against top-seeded Duke in the championship game at Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium.

The 2007 NCAA Championship was the second in the last three years for the Blue Jays under Pietramala's guidance. He led the 2005 team to a perfect 16-0 record and the program's eighth NCAA title with a 9-8 win over Duke. In seven seasons as the head coach at Johns Hopkins, Pietramala has guided the Blue Jays to an 85-19 (.817) record, seven appearances in the NCAA Tournament, five Final Fours, three appearances in the national championship game and the two titles. He is the only person in the history of college lacrosse to win an NCAA Division I championship as a player (1987) and a head coach.

Johns Hopkins relied heavily on a core of players from the state of Maryland who will be on hand at Friday's ceremony. Then senior Jesse Schwartzman (Owings Mills, MD/Pikesville) earned his second NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player award after he posted a 7.32 goals against average and a .651 save percentage in four NCAA Tournament games. Rising senior Paul Rabil (Gaithersburg, MD/DeMatha) earned First Team All-America honors for the second straight year, was named the nation's top midfielder and tallied one goal and a career-high five assists in the title-game victory against the Blue Devils. He led the team in scoring with 27 goals and 26 assists last season.

Other players from the state of Maryland who played key roles in JHU's championship run included:

Jake Byrne (Potomac, MD/Landon)
Senior attackman scored four goals and added an assist in the title game.

Kevin Huntley (Towson, MD/Calvert Hall)
Junior attackman Scored three goals in title-game victory.

Michael Evans (Davidsonville, MD/South River)
Sophomore defenseman helped shut down the top two offensive players in the nation in the championship game.

Michael Kimmel (Towson, MD/Loyola)
Freshman midfielder scored three goals in NCAA Semifinal win against Delaware.

Eric Zerrlaut (Gambrills, MD/St. Mary's)
Senior defenseman helped hold Duke's top two offensive players to a combined one goal and two assists.

In all, 20 of the 48 players who earned a national championship ring last season hail from the state of Maryland. Johns Hopkins will return 39 players and eight starters from last season's national championship team.