St. John’s Baseball: Johnnies split with UC Davis

After last weekend’s nor’easter, St. John’s weekend series against UC Davis was pushed back into a doubleheader on Sunday, where St. John’s won the first one by the score of 8-0 — but suffered their first loss of the season in the second game, 10-6.

The first game of the series was a similar story to most of the Red Storm’s opening games. Dominant pitching and productive hitting staked the Johnnies to a lead from the beginning.

Sean Mooney improved to 3-0 on the season in the first game after pitching five innings, while Kevin Magee and Chris Henry continued the strong pitching out the bullpen to seal the deal for St. John’s.

At the plate, familiar stars Jamie Galazin and John Valente both had three hits apiece, including a homerun for Galazin.

The second game started strong for Ed Blankmeyer’s ball club, going ahead 3-0 in the top of the second, but the Aggies answered with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning to stay in the game.

But the St. John’s pitching staff had no answer for UC Davis’ senior outfielder Ryan Hooper, who drove in five RBI in the second game to anchor the Aggies’ comeback victory. Alex Aguiar and Logan Denholm also drove in two RBI apiece.

St. John’s pitcher Michael LoPresti gave up five hits and three earned runs in three innings of work. This was the first time this season that the Red Storm forced their bullpen into extended outings.

Despite the struggles, St. John’s was still up 5-4 heading into the bottom of the fifth. However, a six run inning for UC Davis gave them a 10-5 lead, one that the Red Storm were unable to come back from.

With the results of this doubleheader, St. John’s now sits at 8-1.

St. John’s was supposed to have a game today against LIU-Brooklyn but because of traveling issues, the game was postponed to an undetermined later date, per a school release. In addition to that cancellation, Wednesday’s game at Fairleigh Dickinson is also now postponed because of the impending snow storm.

Thanks to another strong performance to open up his season, Sean Mooney claimed his second straight Big East Pitcher of the Week award. John Valente also found himself on the Big East Weekly honor roll after batting .500 and hitting two home runs in the two games out west.

After the weather cancellations, the next game for the St. John’s baseball team is scheduled for Friday, March 9 in Lawrence, Kansas for the first game of a three game series against the Kansas Jayhawks . All three games can be seen on the WatchESPN app.