St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
East Tennessee State
St. John's Falls At East Tennessee State, 5-3
3/4/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 4, 2006
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - A three-run third inning and two-run fourth lifted East Tennessee State to a 5-3 win over the St. John's baseball team at Cardinal Park on Saturday evening. Starting pitcher Rob Delaney struck out a career-high 10 batters in 5.0 innings, and senior Eddie Schultz moved into a tie for 10th place all-time at St. John's with his 15th career home run, as St. John's fell to 2-4 on the season with the loss.
Schultz hit a two-run pinch-hit home run in the top of the seventh inning, cutting a 5-1 deficit in half and moving his career RBI total to 99. Gil Zayas, who came around to score on the Schultz homer, was 2-for-4 with a run scored for a second straight multi-hit game. Chris Joachim and Will Vogl both moved season-opening hit streaks to six games, and freshman pitcher Scott Barnes worked 2.1 scoreless innings of relief.
East Tennessee State starting pitcher Jeremy Hall went the distance in winning his third game of the season. Hall allowed five hits and three runs and struck out 10 in the effort. Stephen Douglas led the Buccaneer offense with three RBI, three stolen bases and a run.
Joachim gave the Red Storm an early 1-0 lead doubling to center field and coming around to score on two East Tennessee State fielding errors.
The Buccaneers responded with three runs in the bottom of the third to take their first lead of the series. Douglas hit a two-run single to start the scoring, and shortstop Chuck Hargis added an RBI single to give ETSU a 3-1 lead. East Tennessee added two more runs in the fourth go up 5-1 through four innings.
After Schult's home run in the seventh cut the Red Storm deficit to 5-3, East Tennessee State threatened again in the eight, putting runners on second and third with one out. Head coach Ed Blankmeyer opted to intentionally walk Shane Byrne to set up force outs at each base, and Rich Armento came in from the bullpen and got an inning-ending double play ball.
St. John's put runners on in the ninth, but couldn't cut into the lead as Hall put the finishing touches on a complete game.
The three-game series concludes on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m., with St. John's LHP Luis Monell (0-1, 13.50 ERA) to face East Tennessee State LHP Tony Lombardi (0-3, 6.75) in the pitching matchup.
