St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Splits Doubleheader with Villanova
4/20/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
The split leaves St. Johns at 19-18 overall, and 8-6 in the BIG EAST.
The Red Storm broke open what was a 5-4 game in the fourth inning, scoring four in the fifth and three in the seventh to pull away for the six-run victory.
In the top of the first inning, St. John's recorded four hits and took advantage of two Wildcats errors en route to four unearned runs against Wildcat starter John Yeager. First baseman Eddie Schultz had the big blow in the inning for the Red Storm, knocking a two run single up the middle to give St. John's the 4-0 lead.
The Red Storm posted four runs in the top of the fifth, however, to stake claim to a comfortable 9-4 advantage. Catcher Blake Hershelman had a two-run single in the inning, while leftfielder Anthony DeRosa and rightfielder Greg Thomson each added an RBI.
St. John's put the game away in the top of the seventh inning. The Red Storm added three more runs, on four hits and a Wildcat error, to break open the game at 12-4.
Mike Tamulionis (2-1) got the win for St. John's pitching three and a third strong innings of relief.
For the Red Storm at the plate, shortstop Mike Rozema led the way going four-for-five with a double, triple, two runs scored and two RBI.
In the second game, James Baxter threw a five-hitter and Chris Graziano had five hits and drove in four runs to lead the Wildcats (8-24, 3-13) to the win.
With the game still scoreless in the bottom of the second inning, the Villanova offense awoke with three runs off of St. John's freshman starter Craig Hansen (Glen Cove, N.Y.) to take an early 3-0 lead. Rightfielder Alan Day scored the game's first run on a throwing error by Hansen. The Wildcats added to their lead later in the inning on an RBI double by Graziano, and capped off the inning on a sac fly to center by Danny Poydenis.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Villanova scored one more run to increase its advantage to 4-0. The Red Storm finally got on the scoreboard in the fifth inning. Freshman rightfielder Greg Thomson (Levittown, N.Y.) singled to right with one out and came around to score on a double off the left-field wall by catcher Marc Wagner. Wagner's RBI double cut the Wildcat lead to 4-1. Villanova scored six runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to take a commanding 10-1 lead.
St. John's loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the sixth inning. Baxter then walked the next batter, Thomson, to score Mike Rozema and trim the margin to 10-2. Baxter got out of the jam, however, getting Wagner to line out to third for the final out of the inning.
Hansen (1-2) took the loss for St. John's, giving up four runs (two earned) on five hits in 3.1 innings, striking out three and walking two.
St. Johns will host Pace on Tuesday at The Ballpark at 7 p.m.
