St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Baseball Maintains Position in National Rankings
5/16/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 16, 2005
Queens, NY - The St. John's University baseball team maintained its standing among the top teams in the country in three national polls released on Monday.
The Red Storm, who won two of three games last week, improved to 35-14 overall and are ranked No. 25 in the country by Baseball America. They are also ranked No. 28 by Collegiate Baseball newspaper and No. 36 in the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches' poll.
St. John's will close out the 2005 regular season home slate on Tuesday night, hosting Manhattan at The Ballpark. First pitch has been moved up to 6 p.m.
St. John's, with a 16-4 league mark, needs one win to clinch the BIG EAST regular season title. Should the Red Storm win the regular season championship, it would be the first for the program since 1992.
The team's doubleheader sweep of Fairleigh Dickinson on Saturday gave the Red Storm 35 regular season wins, tying the single-season school record of 35 set in 2004. The wins over FDU on Saturday were both shutout victories (3-0, 11-0), the second time this season the team had shut out an opponent in a doubleheader (Quinnipiac, 6-0, 6-0). It gave the Red Storm pitching staff nine shutout wins this season, the most since the 1968 College World Series team had 13 in the season. In 25.0 innings this week in three games, the Red Storm pitching staff did not allow an earned run, giving up one run (in a 1-0 loss at home to New York Tech) on 10 hits with eight walks and 23 strikeouts.
Junior pitcher Anthony Varvaro (Staten Island, NY) struck out seven against FDU, giving him 110 this season and moving him into fourth all-time for a single season, one behind Rich Napolitano, who had 111 in 1967. That performance gave him 244 career strikeouts and moved him into third all-time at St. John's.
Junior centerfielder Greg Thomson (Levittown, NY) hit his 18th double of the season against FDU, moving him into a tie for third in a single season at St. John's and giving him 35 for his career, which is tied for ninth. Senior third baseman Jim Martin (Norwood, MA) has 203 career hits and needs two more to move into the top-10 all-time at St. John's and senior shortstop PJ. Antoniato (Levittown, NY) is seventh all-time in a single season with 53 runs scored.
Sophomore Anthony Smith (Katonah, NY) will take the hill against the Jaspers, with first pitch slated for 6 p.m.
