St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Baseball Makes Schedule Changes
3/19/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 19, 2004
Jamaica, N.Y. - The St. John's University baseball team announced several schedule changes on Friday due to the inclement weather in the New York City area, it was announced by head coach Ed Blankmeyer.
A game against Hofstra, scheduled for Friday at 3 p.m., has been postponed due to snow. The game had originally been scheduled for earlier in the week, but was moved due to another blast of winter from Mother Nature. The Red Storm the Pride are tentatively scheduled to play on Monday at a time and site to be determined.
In addition, St. John's doubleheader on Saturday against Fairliegh Dickinson (0-3) has been rescheduled. Blankmeyer has announced that the teams are tentatively scheduled to play a seven-inning doubleheader at The Ballpark on Sunday, beginning at noon. The series' third game has been postponed and may be made up a later date in the season.
The Red Storm, 5-8 overall, took two of three games in a road series last weekend at UNC-Asheville. It was the second three-games series that St. John's had won, after taking two of three games at Lamar from February 27-29.
The team was led by junior Blake Hershelman (Georgetown, Del.), who batted .636 (7-for-11) during the weekend, hitting three home runs and a double, driving in six runs and a team-high 17 total bases. Early in the season, Hershelman ranks among the leaders in the BIG EAST in several categories. He ranks third in the league in batting with a .440 average (22-for-50), is tied for the lead in home runs (4), is second in total bases (39), tied for sixth in hits (22), fifth in on-base percentage (.509) and is third in slugging percentage (.783).
The team had several strong pitching performances over the weekend. After losing the series opener, the Red Storm came-from-behind in the second game, scoring four runs in the seventh inning in a 9-7 decision. Freshman Matt Tosoni (Whitby, Ontario, Canada) threw 5.1 innings of relief, allowing only one run on four hits, for his first collegiate win, and senior Geno Orsogna (Norfolk, Mass.) earned his first save, striking out three in 2.1 innings. In Sunday's series finale, junior Jim Wladyka (Rutherford, N.J.) went six innings, giving up one run on two hits (both singles) in a 7-1 St. John's win. The Red Storm pitchers held the Bulldogs to a .186 team batting average for the weekend.
