St. John's University Athletics
Red Storm in Winners Bracket at Triangle Classic
2/18/2001 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Heavy rains from the night before forced the day's games to be postponed for nearly four hours. The Red Storm began the day by defeating George Mason, 7-0, to finish the first part of the tournament, seeded third in thier pool. Gina Calabrese (Long Beach, NY/Long Beach) earned the complete game shutout, as she gave up just three hits, striking out nine. Tiffany Howerton (Escondido, CA/Escondido) powered the St. John's offense, batting 2-for-4 with a homerun, four RBI and two runs scored.
St. John's opened scoring in the first inning. Lisa Tropea (Oceanside, NY/Oceanside) led off with a single to left and scored on Howerton's homerun. Kelly Houghton (Millsboro, DE/Briarcliffe CC) doubled to left center and came around to score on a double by Ann Raab (Freehold, NJ/Allentown).
The Red Storm added another run in the the third inning on a double by Marilyn Brown (Bronx, NY/John F. Kennedy). With two out in the bottom of the sixth, St. John's added three more runs. Lauren Fisher (East Rockaway, NY/East Rockaway) scored on a RBI single by Jessica Shepherd (Akron, OH/Ellet). Shepherd and Tropea scored on an error by the shortstop to cap off St. John's scoring.
The win placed the Red Storm in the Silver Flight bracket in tournament play. In the opening round, with the game beginning at 9:30 p.m., St. John's faced the Elon College Phoenix.
St. John's opened scoring in the second inning when Cecilia Baston (Fallmouth, ME/Fallmouth) walked and later scored on a single by Fisher, for a 1-0 lead. However, the Phoenix answered right back in thier half of the inning with a leadoff homerun by Pam Brock.
Howerton put the Red Storm ahead for good when she drilled a pitch by Shawn Brown over the left field fence for her second homerun of the day.
St. John's scored one more in the top of the fourth before breaking the game open in the sixth. The Red Storm batted around, scoring four runs on four hits, while Elon contributed to the effort by committing three errors. Fisher singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Tropea singled. Shepherd reached on an error by the shortstop and, on the same play, Fisher scored on the catcher's error, allowing Tropea to advance to third. Howerton reached on an error by the shortstop, scoring Tropea. The final two runs were scored when Houghton singled through the left side, scoring Shepherd and Howerton.
Courtney Fitzgerald earned her first win of the season, allowing just one run on three hits.
St. John's will go on to play Eastern Kentucky in the semi-finals of the Silver Flight winner's bracket.
