WASHINGTON - The Catholic University of America baseball team dropped a midweek non-conference game to John Hopkins University 12-3 on Thursday afternoon.

The Blue Jays came out strong with a run in the bottom of the first inning to go up 1-0. The Cardinals answered with two runs in the top of the second when Mike McFarland dropped a single into left center to score Paul Burmester and Andrew Stewart.

In the bottom of the second, Hopkins tied the game at two and then advanced to a 4-2 lead with a run in the third and fourth inning. McFarland notched his third RBI of the game in the sixth inning when he drove in Stewart to bring the CUA deficit to just one.

With a 4-3 lead the Blue Jays notched four runs in the bottom of the sixth and four more in the eighth to go ahead 12-3.

The Cardinals exhausted six pitchers in the 8.5 inning game.  Christopher Hutton made his first start of the season and was charged with the loss. Karan Sinha and Mark Duffy each saw two innings on the mound while Joseph Prego, J.P. Boyle and Josh Martin each threw from the rubber for Catholic.

The Cardinals will host the United States Merchant Marine Academy for a three game conference series with a double header Saturday, April 18 starting at 1 p.m., followed by a nine inning game on Sunday April 19 at 12.