St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
Rutgers
St. John's Wins Second Straight At Rutgers, 11-2
4/29/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 29, 2006
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - St. John's blew open a 4-2 game with a seven-run eighth inning to close the door on Rutgers and win the second straight game of the series, 11-2, on Saturday afternoon. Will Vogl delivered a grand slam - his second home run of the series - and Chris Joachim and Anthony Smith each drove in three runs to lead the attack.
With the win, St. John's improved to 28-13 overall and 10-6 in the BIG EAST, while Rutgers fell to 19-20-1 overall and 7-10 in conference play.
Starting pitcher Rob Delaney allowed two earned runs and struck out seven over five-plus innings to improve to 4-3 on the season. The junior allowed six hits and three walks and threw 58 of his 100 pitches for strikes. Luis Monell and James Lally closed out the final four innings of the game without allowing a run, as Monell lowered his earned run average to 0.71 in six relief appearances (12.2 innings) and Lally worked a scoreless ninth inning to seal the win.
Vogl went 1-for-4 with a grand slam - the first Red Storm grand slam of the season - and scored three runs, and Joachim extended his hit streak to 20 games with a 2-for-5 day and three RBI. Smith stayed hot with three more hits and three more RBI, and a total of 10 players scored at least one of the team's runs.
The Red Storm wasted no time in jumping out to a 1-0 lead, scoring a run on a Joachim RBI single in the top of the first inning. Vogl came around to score after getting hit by a Sean Spicer offering to lead off the game, as Joachim extended his hit streak to 20 games with a groundball single up the middle.
Rutgers threatened early, but Delaney was able to strand three runners in scoring position in the first three innings to maintain the team's one-run lead.
St. John's added three more runs in the fifth, and again Joachim dealt the key blow. Eddie Schultz led off the inning with a single through the left side of the infield, and back-to-back fielding errors put Vogl and Sam DeLuca on base for Joachim. The junior captain worked a 2-2 count, before lining a two-run single past a diving Todd Frazier at shortstop. Smith plated DeLuca with his second hit of the afternoon.
Rutgers got within 4-2 with a two-run sixth inning, as the Scarlet Knights chased Delaney and got into the Red Storm bullpen. Monell, who inherited runners on first and second with no outs, induced two groundouts and struck the final batter of the inning out looking. Both earned runs were given to Delaney, after being responsible for both runners on base when he left the game.
The Red Storm added insurance and then some in the top of the eighth inning, scoring seven runs behind a big grand slam from Vogl. In all, St. John's pounded out five hits in the inning, including Vogl's grand slam, a two-run single by Smith and an RBI base hit by Gil Zayas. Four different Scarlet Knight pitchers labored through the inning, and three of them recorded outs.
Monell did not allow a run in three innings of work, and then gave way to Lally to finish the game. Lally allowed no hits and two walks in recording the final three outs and finishing his 10th game of the season.
The Red Storm looks for the series sweep on Sunday at noon, when freshman left-hander Scott Barnes (1-1, 5.24 ERA) gets set to face Rutgers junior righty Steve Healing (1-0, 4.41 ERA).
