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The Johnnies fell to 5th in Big East play after a 1-3 week, where a road series ended up going sideways
April 23, St. John’s vs. Stony Brook University
St. John’s 6, Stony Brook 3 | WP: French (2-0) LP: Clark (0-1) S: Kelly (4)
The Red Storm started the week with a win against Stony Brook.
Nick Mondak took the mound for St. John’s last Tuesday game at home, keeping St. john’s a step ahead of the Gaels.
Mondak pitched five innings and gave up five hits and one ER. Mondak’s work kept the ball in play, and made it easy for his defense. Allowing one walk and one hit batsman, he gave the defense behind him six ground balls and three fly balls to deal with.
The bullpen sent out five pitchers for the remaining innings — including Turner French, who pitched a perfect inning on his way to the win. Joe Kelly closed the 9th inning for his 4th save of the year.
The Storm got 11 hits on the day, led by 1B Ryan Hogan who recorded three hits and scored two runs. A total of six players got in the hit column for the Storm; four produced multiple hits.
Stony Brook played well enough to keep the game close and have a chance up to their final out. Like the Storm, the Seawolves had six players tally a hit each.
April 26-28 series vs Georgetown
The Red Storm traveled to Bethesda, Maryland to take on the Georgetown Hoyas for a 3-game Big East Series.
The series was close, even though the Storm got swept for only the second time this season.
The Hoyas, who entered the series 13-27, moved up to third in the standings with their wins and improved to 5-4 in Big East play, 16-27 overall. St. John’s is now in fifth place, 23-17 on the season and 5-7 in the Big East.
Game 1: St. John’s 3, Georgetown 4 | WP: Burke (2-8) LP: LaSorsa (4-4) S: Grzebinski (6)
The Red Storm and the Hoyas both recorded six hits and one error each, but the Hoyas took advantage of a mid-game mistake to finish with the W.
Joe LaSorsa got the start for the Storm. Through five innings, LaSorsa had conceded a solid five hits and one earned run. But his effort was tainted by Brandon Miller’s fielding error in the 5th inning that allowed two runs to score and the batter to take 3rd base. LaSorsa had two strikeouts and two walks on the day to accompany his effort on the mound.
The St. John’s offense once again faced a tough pitcher and couldn’t plate enough runs to get the win. C Wyatt Mascarella clubbed a home run to left to score two of the three Red Storm runs on the day.
The Hoyas got on the board with a solo home run in the 2nd inning and plated the rest of their runs unearned via the fielding error. Jeremiah Burke got the start for the Hoyas and pitched seven, amassing a career high 12 strikeouts.
Game 2: St. John’s 1, Georgetown 2 | WP: Morreale (4-2) LP: Murphy (1-2) S: Grzebinski (7)
Game 2 of the series was similar to Game 1: a pitching duel that would result in St. John’s falling by a run (despite outhitting Georgetown 7-2).
The Red Storm managed their hits from seven different starters, accompanied by four walks. Yet only 2B Ryan Markey was able to score, on a DH Mitchell Henshaw single, after benefitting from a fielding error and sac fly.
Ian Murphy started the game for the Storm and cranked out four innings of two run work with only one run earned. Turner French and Joe Kelly finished the game from the bullpen in a dominant fashion by striking out five in their four innings.
Georgetown used aggressive baserunning by capitalizing on a sac fly and extra base hit to steal another from the Storm.
Game 3: St. John’s 1, Georgetown 4 | WP: Cushing (4-3) LP: Belge (2-5) S: Grzebinski (8)
St. John’s finished the weekend unable to take a game from Georgetown, as they fell to two games below .500 in Big East play.
Jeff Belge got the start for the finale. Belge was victimized by his loss of pitch control in his 3.2 innings pitched.
Belge struck out four and gave up only two hits, but walked five.
Gavin Hollowell came in from the bullpen for four innings of relief work, striking out eight, but gave up 2 runs like Belge. Ethan Routzahn finished the Johnnies’ pitching with an out on two pitches.
The Red Storm bats couldn’t keep pace with the Hoyas as they had done in Games 1 and 2. LF Mike Antico went 3-4 on the day with the only RBI for St. John’s.
Between two pitchers, the Hoyas collected 10 strikeouts to four walks and six hits allowed. The Hoyas also clubbed two home runs, both solo shots, enough to beat the Storm.
The week dropped St. John’s to 5-7 in Big East play and makes the final two series as crucial for the postseasonhopes.
This week brings another 4 game week for St. John’s.
- On Tuesday, the Storm will host Iona as they hope to sweep the home and home series.
- Wednesday the Storm will travel to Fairleigh Dickinson try to sweep that series as well.
- Saturday and Sunday bring a home and home series against Princeton where the Storm will host a doubleheader on Saturday and travel to Princeton for a game on Sunday.