St. John's University Athletics
SOFTBALL SPLITS WITH MANHATTAN
3/24/2001 12:00:00 AM | Softball
In the first game, senior Gina Calabrese (Long Beach, N.Y./Long Beach) hurled a one-hit shutout, her second shutout in as many games. Calabrese struck out seven and allowed no walks in blanking the Jaspers. The Red Storm offense scored three runs in the third inning and four in the fourth to support Calabrese.
Freshman Jessica Dima led off the third with a single to centerfield. Sophomore Alesha Argeras (Warren, Ohio/Matthews) then reached on an error by the first baseman. Junior Lisa Tropea (Oceanside, N.Y./Oceanside) ripped a two-run double for her ninth and tenth RBIs of the season. After a pair of pop-outs, junior Kelly Houghton (Millsboro, Del./Briarcliffe) drew a walk to keep the innings alive. Senior Lauren Fisher (East Rockaway, N.Y./East Rockaway) drove in the third run of the inning with a single past the shortstop to plate Tropea. Fisher has now hit safely in nine straight games, the longest streak on the team. Calabrese then struck out the side in the bottom of the third, and the Red Storm bats stayed hot into the fourth inning.
Junior Marilyn Brown (Bronx, N.Y./John F. Kennedy) led off the top of the fourth with a single to right. Dima reached on a nubber out in front of the plate. Argeras bunted her way on to load the bases with no outs. The next two batters, Tropea and junior Ann Raab (Freehold, N.J./Allentown), both struck out, to give the Red Storm two quick outs. Junior Tiffany Howerton (Escondido, Calif./Escondido) kept the inning alive with an RBI-single to left field to score Brown. Then Houghton stepped up and skied the first pitch she saw over the right fielder's glove for a bases-clearing double. Houghton leads the Red Storm with 18 runs batted in. Fisher lined out to third to end the inning, but not before the Red Storm built their 7-0 lead. Jessica Mack, hitting in the fourth spot, broke up the perfect game by Calabrese with a sharp single to left, but that would be the only base runner the Jaspers could manage, as Calabrese retired the final eight batters of the game for her eighth win of the season.In the second game, freshman Kate Cucciniello (Humble, Texas/Humble) took the mound for the Red Storm and retired the side in order in the first inning, including two strikeouts. The Jaspers rallied for four runs in the second inning on two hits and two errors and chased Cucciniello out of the game after just 1.2 innings. Sophomore Courtney Fitzgerald (Bellerose, N.Y./Mary Louis Academy) came in in relief and retired the next 13 batters in a row, striking out three.
The Red Storm managed a run in the fourth on back-to-back doubles by Howerton and Houghton. Then in the top half of the sixth, sophomore Jessica Shepherd (Akron, Ohio/Ellet) singled to left and advanced all the way to third when the left fielder overran the ball. Brown pinch-hit for junior Cecelia Baston (Falmouth, Maine/Falmouth) and launched a sacrifice fly to right-field to score Shepherd.
In the top of the seventh and down two, Dima, batting in the nine spot, led off with a double to left but was stranded as the 1-2-3 hitters in the Red Storm lineup were unable to bring her around.
The Red Storm return to action on Tuesday March 27 when they travel to New Rochelle to face the Iona College Gaels in a noon doubleheader. This will be the final tuneup for St. John's before BIG EAST action begins on March 31.
