St. John’s Baseball opens up to red hot start in North Carolina

It’s safe to say that St. John’s enjoys playing in North Carolina.

The Red Storm opened up their season with four road games and three neutral site games in the Tar Heel State, and they’re heading back up north riding a seven game win streak.

#23 St. John’s 5, #6 North Carolina 2

After last weekend’s series sweep of Campbell, the team traveled to Chapel Hill, where they upset sixth ranked North Carolina, 5-2. The Johnnies jumped out to a 2-0 lead, only for the Tar Heels to score two of their own.

The game was all square at two when the Red Storm’s Mike Antico hit a controversial solo shot. The ball appeared to veer just outside of the foul pole, but the umpire signaled a fair ball to put St. John’s up 3-2. Singles from John Valente and Robert Boselli gave the Johnnies much needed insurance.

#23 St. John’s 3, Monmouth 0

During the next two games against Monmouth and UMBC, the St. John’s pitching staff improved upon an impressive start to the season.

In Sean Mooney’s second start to the season, he tossed six innings against Monmouth, allowing only four hits and striking out 11. With the win, Mooney’s record is now 2-0. Joe LaSorsa picked up his third save of the season after Joe Kelly pitched two scoreless innings.

#23 St. John’s 12, UMBC 0

Following that win, St. John’s put its undefeated record to the test against UMBC. Baseball can sometimes be a long game, St. John’s secured this one beyond reasonable doubt in the first inning. Before UMBC had a batter step to the plate, St. John’s scored eight runs en route to a 12-0 victory.

To that point, St. John’s hadn’t given up a run in almost 24 consecutive innings.

Right fielder Anthony Brocato led the offensive charge, with 2 homeruns and tallying 4 RBI against UMBC.

In a recurring theme for St. John’s, the bullpen proved its depth. Aaron Herr, Chris Henry and David Moyer all pitched scoreless innings in relief to coast to the first easy victory of the season for the Red Storm. Through seven games, only three pitchers out of the nine in the St. John’s bullpen have given up a run. Through 64 innings, opposing teams have only scored 8 runs.

#23 St. John’s 18, Penn State 4

From one offensive explosion to the next: St. John’s jumped on the Nittany Lions early, scoring eight first inning runs. Just one day after a 12-0 win, St. John’s thrashed Penn State 18-4.

It was catcher Wyatt Mascarella who led the offensive surge, finishing with 4 RBI and scoring two himself. Shortstop Luke Stampfl continued the strong start to his tenure in Queens with 2 RBI.

Michael LoPresti got his second win of the season after pitching six innings and only giving up 1 earned run.

Awards & accolades

For their performances over the past week, Mooney was named Big East Pitcher of the Week and Anthony Brocato was selected to the Big East Weekly Honor Roll.

During the week, Brocato batted .364 and drove in nine RBI, including that multi-homerun game against UMBC.

Next

The Johnnies will continue their travels with a trip to the west coast this weekend for a showdown with UC Davis. The Aggies are coming off getting swept by St. John’s’ Big East rival Creighton this past weekend.