St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Baseball Announces Its 2007 Season Schedule
11/28/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
- 2007 Schedule | Printable Version (PDF)
- Preseason Quick Facts (PDF)
The St. John's baseball team and head coach Ed Blankmeyer have announced the program's 2007 season schedule. The Red Storm begins its quest for a third straight 40-win campaign with three challenging early season tournaments and a Spring Break trip through Texas and Louisiana, before opening its home slate on March 14 against Albany.
St. John's returns seven offensive starters and 11 pitchers from a team that finished among the Top 10 in the nation with a .327 batting average (eighth) and a 3.21 earned run average (fifth) in 2006. All-BIG EAST selections Sam DeLuca, Chris Joachim, Anthony Smith and Matt Tosoni give St. John's a core of experienced veterans, and freshman pitcher Miguel Valcarcel headlines a group of talented newcomers that can compete for playing time right away.
"We're excited to play in three early tournaments that pit us against some outstanding competition throughout the country," Blankmeyer said. "We're getting a good variety of quality RPI teams, and we also have the opportunity to play against Rice and a solid McNeese State program. The BIG EAST schedule is a challenge week-in and week-out, and the league is wide open for competition this year."
St. John's opens the season at the 2007 Collegiate Classic in Midland, Texas, from Feb. 15-17 and takes on Eastern Michigan, Texas Tech and Dallas Baptist. The following weekend, the Red Storm travels to Greenville, N.C., for the East Carolina Tournament and matchups against the host Pirates (Feb. 23), Duke (Feb. 24) and Washington (Feb. 25). A return trip to Texas for the Lamar University Baseball Classic gives way to a Spring Break trip and contests against national power Rice (March 6) and McNeese State (March 8-10).
Albany comes to Queens on March 14 in the Red Storm's first home game of the year, and Quinnipiac (March 17-18), Fairfield (March 20) and Temple (March 21) round out a five-game home stand. Connecticut is the team's first BIG EAST Conference opponent of the season, and the two teams collide in Storrs from March 23-25.
After a non-conference matchups at Columbia (March 27), the Red Storm returns to The Ballpark for a 12-game home stand that includes a contest against Wagner (March 28), doubleheader against Fairleigh Dickinson (April 11) and home BIG EAST series against Rutgers (March 30-April 1), Villanova (April 5-7) and Pittsburgh (April 13-15).
Nine of St. John's next 10 contests come on the road, highlighted by trips to local rivals LIU (April 17), Hofstra (April 18) and Albany (April 25) and conference series at Georgetown (April 27-29) and West Virginia (April 27-29). The road trip to Morgantown wraps up April action and starts a run of four straight BIG EAST opponents that represented half of the BIG EAST Tournament field a year ago.
Games against Iona (May 9) and NYIT (May 1 and 15) are the team's final three non-conference contests and break up key BIG EAST matchups with Louisville (May 5-6), Cincinnati (May 11-13) and at South Florida (May 17-19).
The 2007 BIG EAST Championship is tentatively scheduled to be played at Brooklyn's KeySpan Park, the home of Mets Single-A affiliate Brooklyn Cyclones, from May 22-26. NCAA Regionals take place at campus sites from May 31 to June 3, followed by Super Regionals (June 8-10) at campus sites and the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. (June 15-25).