St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
SETON HALL
Red Storm Wins 3-0, Sweeps Visiting Seton Hall
5/7/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 7, 2006
QUEENS, N.Y. - Freshmen Scott Barnes and Justin Gutsie combined to post St. John's second shutout in three games, as the Red Storm completed a series sweep of Seton Hall with a 3-0 win on Sunday. Barnes allowed four hits and struck out seven over eight scoreless innings, and Chris Joachim drove in two runs and scored another in a decisive three-run third inning for St. John's.
With the win, St. John's improved to 32-14 overall, 15-3 on its home field and 13-7 in the BIG EAST, while Seton Hall fell to 14-29 overall and 5-16 in conference play.
Sam DeLuca, Bryan Dirr and Anthony Smith all had two hits for St. John's, and Joachim went 1-for-2 with two RBI, two stolen bases and a run scored. DeLuca extended his current hit streak to a team-best 12 games, while Dirr singled twice, scored a run and recorded his fifth sacrifice bunt of the series. Smith drove in the Red Storm's third run of the game with an RBI single in the third inning, and Will Vogl, who went 7-for-9 in a Saturday doubleheader sweep, doubled and scored a run.
Barnes worked through some early control problems, cruising through the middle and late innings on his way to his second win of the season. The freshman walked three batters in the first three innings, but walked none and allowed just one hit the rest of the way. Gutsie recorded his second save of the week, allowing no base runners and striking out one in the ninth inning.
Vogl led off the decisive third-inning with a double into the right field corner and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Dirr. Pitcher Corey Young's throw to third base was not in time to get Vogl, and Dirr reached base on the fielder's choice. Dirr stole second to put a pair of runners in scoring position with no outs, and the Red Storm capitalized on a two-run single by Joachim. Joachim advanced to second on a throw home, stole third base and scored on an RBI single through the right side by Smith.
Barnes allowed just one hit and struck out four batters over the next four innings and left a runner in scoring position with a groundout in the eighth. Gil Zayas extended to his right on a groundball down the line, made the pick-up and fired to first base, as Barnes retired the last batter he would face.
Luis Monell began the ninth inning, but, after a leadoff walk to Dan McDonald, was relieved by Gutsie. The freshman got a flyball out for the first out of the inning, but threw two wild pitches to allow McDonald to move up to third base. With a runner on third, the Gutsie battled back from a 3-0 count to strike out Brandon Cohen and then got pinch-hitter Casey Hines to fly out to Dirr in left field to end the game.
With the sweep, St. John's gained ground on both idle, second-place UConn (28-15-1, 13-5-1), and fourth-place Cincinnati (30-18, 11-10) in the BIG EAST Conference standings. The Bearcats dropped two games on the road at Villanova to fall into a tie for fourth place with Louisville, which took two of three games from No. 8 Notre Dame.
St. John's wraps up its non-conference schedule with a Wednesday day-night doubleheader against Long Island (3 p.m.) and Iona (7:30 p.m.). BIG EAST newcomer South Florida comes to town for a three-game conference series beginning Friday, May 12, at 7 p.m., as the Red Storm completes its 2006 home slate.
