St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Baseball Earns National Ranking
5/25/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 25, 2004
QUEENS, N.Y. -- The St. John's University baseball team, which concluded the regular season with a second place finish in the BIG EAST, was ranked No. 34 in the nation, in the latest edition of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Top-35 poll, it was announced today.
The Red Storm secured a spot in the four-team BIG EAST baseball tournament and clinched second place after taking two of three games in a series at Pittsburgh this past weekend.
The wins improved St. John's to 35-19 overall and 17-9 in BIG EAST play, the most wins for a Red Storm team since 1991, when the team won 18 games.
The Red Strom are ranked 34th nationally, one spot behind Tennessee, and just ahead of Pittsburgh. There are three BIG EAST teams ranked in the top-35, with Notre Dame seventh in the nation.
St. John's will begin play this week in the BIG EAST Tournament, facing off against the third-seeded Panthers (38-16, 17-9). First pitch at Commerce Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater, N.J. is slated for 7 p.m. Top-seeded Notre Dame will play fourth-seed Boston College in the opening game of the tournament.
The appearance in the national poll is the first for St. John's this season, and its first since the 1997 season, when the Red Storm won the BIG EAST Tournament Championship and advanced to an NCAA Regional.
St. John's started off the season with a 3-7 record, but has won 32 of its last 44 games to turn the season around. The team has been backed by a pitching staff that ranks second in the BIG EAST in earned run average (3.87) and topped the league in conference action, posting a 3.14 ERA, more than a half a run better than the nearest competitor.
Sophomore Anthony Varvaro (Staten Island, N.Y.) leads the team, and is tied for second in the league in wins, with a 7-3 record, while senior Joe Reid (Rutherford, N.J.) has six wins and ranks third in the league with 74 strikeouts.
Junior third baseman Jim Martin (Norwood, Mass.) has led an offense that saw its combined batting average jump 15 points, from .294 last year to .308 entering the BIG EAST Tournament. Martin ranks 15th in the BIG EAST in batting with a .345 average, including a .391 mark in conference play, which stood third overall.
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