Decorated St. John’s baseball squad vies for Big East championship this weekend

St. John’s will take on fourth-seeded Georgetown in Ohio in the four-day, double-elimination Big East Tournament. Most of the games will be on the Big East Digital Network, starting with the Hoyas/ Red Storm this afternoon.

The championship game or games will be on FS2 on Sunday.

The Johnnies cruised to a first-place finish and earned a dugout’s worth of accolades this season under coach Ed Blankmeyer, this season’s Big East Coach of the Year.

The Red Storm’s first-ever Big East Player of the Year went to third baseman/ utility player John Valente, who hit a Big East-best .363 with five homer runs, 37 RBI and 11 steals.

The Big East First Team included Valente and pitcher Sean Mooney, both unanimous selections; first baseman Luke Stampfl; second baseman Josh Shaw; and outfielder Jamie Galazin. Left-hander Kevin Magee, righty reliever Gavin Hollowell and outfielder Anthony Brocato received second-team honors. And as northjersey.com points out, many of the players hail from New Jersey.

Currently unranked and in a conference not predicted to generate at-large bids, St. John’s will want to win their way through the Big East Tournament to ensure a spot in the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament. The bracket will be announced on Monday.

Wendell Cruz

Tournament Format

The Red Storm play at 2:30 near Xavier University (specifically, at Prasco Field in Mason, OH). The #2 seeded Seton Hall faces #3 seeded Butler at 6:30 PM.

The losers of the two games face off on Friday at 2:30 and the winners at 6:30. The loser of the “losers’ bracket” game is eliminated, while the winner of the game gets one more chance to make the championship game on Saturday, facing the loser of the “winners’ bracket” contest at 2:30.

The Friday winner — the team that has won 2 games to that point — then faces the winner of the Saturday game on Sunday at 1:00 PM. If that team loses, the two teams play a “Game 7” at 4:30 PM.