St. John's University Athletics
Three Baseball Players Named to NCAA All-Region Team
6/7/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
June 7, 2004
Palo Alto, Calif. - Three members of the St. John's University baseball team were selected to the All-Region team following their performances this past weekend. The Red Storm were the No. 3 seed in a four-team regional hosted by Stanford University at Sunken Diamond.
Red Storm junior catcher Joe Burke (Brooklyn, N.Y.), sophomore first baseman Eddie Schultz (Flemington, N.J.) and sophomore center fielder Greg Thomson (Levittown, N.Y.) were selected to the All-Region team.
Long Beach State, who beat Stanford 8-4 on Sunday to win the regional and advanced to next weekend's Super Regional against Arizona, had six players named to the All-Region team, while St. John's had three and host Stanford had two.
Stanford was represented by second baseman Jed Lowrie and designated hitter Chris Carter, while Long Beach State third baseman Danny Mocny, shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, outfielders Sean Boatright and John Bowker, and pitchers Jered Weaver and Cesar Ramos, each earned all-region honors.
Thomson was one of the top hitters all weekend, leading St. John's with a .583 average as he had seven hits in 12 at-bats. The sophomore had three multi-hit games, hit four doubles, scored three runs, drove in two and stole one base. In the first game of the regional, he went 3-for-4 against Long Beach State, with a double, two singles and an RBI. He came back on Saturday morning and went 2-for-4 with two doubles, two runs and an RBI in a 96- win over UNLV. In the Red Storm's 7-2 loss to host Stanford, Thomson hit a double, single and scored a run. Thomson was the only player in the regional to have three multi-hit games.
Schultz, meanwhile, became one of the more popular players in the bracket after hitting home runs in consecutive games against Long Beach State and UNLV. The sophomore first baseman/designated hitter hit .566 during the weekend, collecting five hits in nine at-bats, scoring twice and driving in three runs. He hit a solo home run against the Dirtbags, then hit a two-run shot in the 9-6 win over UNLV and was interviewed live on CSTV by sideline reporter Scott Walker.
Burke, a second-team All-BIG EAST selection, batted .400 during the weekend, with four hits in 10 at-bats. He went 2-for-3 with two RBI in the 9-6 win over UNLV and had a pair of singles and an RBI against Stanford in the elimination game on Saturday night. Burke had a 14-game hit streak, during which he batted .472 (25-for-53), with nine runs scored, eight RBI, five doubles and seven multi-hit games, ended in the NCAA opener against Long Beach State on Friday night.
The Red Storm's win against UNLV on Saturday morning was the program's first NCAA Tournament win since an 11-10 victory over Cal-State Northridge in the West Regional in 1993. St. John's went 1-2 in the regional, finishing the 2004 season with a 37-23 overall record.
St. John's win over UNLV will be rebroadcast on CSTV (College Sports Television) on Monday afternoon at 5 p.m., with Carter Blackburn calling the play-by-play, and former Major League shortstop Kevin Stocker serving as the color analyst.