St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
vs. Akron (Ringor Invitational Silver Division Semifinals)
Zips Hold Off Red Storm, 5-4
3/13/2005 12:00:00 AM | Softball
March 13, 2005
Rock Hill, SC - The St. John's University softball team fell to Akron, 5-4 this morning in the Silver Division of the 2005 Winthrop/Ringor Invitational. The Red Storm conclude the tournament with a 10-11 overall record, while the Zips move onto the finals with a 9-5 record.
Akron took advantage of a poor defensive inning by the Red Storm to score four runs on only one hit in the top of the second inning, taking an early 4-0 lead.
In the bottom of the inning, St. John's tried to respond but left the bases loaded to end the rally.
Freshman Lisa Geer (Anaheim, CA) came in relief of starter Brittany Crouch (Irvine, CA) with the bases loaded and no outs in the top of the third inning. Geer escaped without harm as she retired the next three batters to keep the score at 4-0.
Two Zips errors led to three St. John's runs in the bottom of the third, to shorten the deficit to 4-3. The Red Storm loaded the bases with no outs and after the innings first out, senior Jillian Sandoval (Orange, CA) hit a sacrifice fly to deep centerfield, also allowing all the runs advance a base. Next batter, sophomore Christina Tucker (San Diego, CA) hit a routine fly ball to right field, that was dropped allowing both runners to score.
The score would hold at 4-3 until the top of the seventh inning, when Akron would add what would be the game-winning run on an infield groundout to expand the edge to 5-3.
Sophomore Tami Hill (San Diego, CA), who had three hits on the day, hit her first career home run in the bottom of the inning to cut the game to 5-4, but that was how the game would stay as the Red Storm would leave a runner at second with one out.
Geer pitched well in relief for the Red Storm, allowing only one run on five hits and a walk over five innings, while striking out two Zip batters.
St. John's returns to the field on Friday, March 18, when they travel to Raleigh, NC for the first day of the Wolfpack Challenge, hosted by NC State University. During the first day, the Red Storm take on Marist at 11 am, Western Kentucky at 3 pm and host NC State at 5 pm.
