St. John's University Athletics
Red Storm Pitches Second Shutout, Beats Hofstra 12-0
4/18/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Starting pitcher Jared Yecker and four St. John's (22-12) relievers combined for the team's second shutout of the season, as the Red Storm defeated Hofstra (13-25), 12-0, at University Field on Wednesday. Yecker allowed three hits and a walk while tying a career-high with six strikeouts, and the Red Storm offense went for 18 hits and had 31 runners reach base in the win.
The last time Yecker struck out six batters in an outing also came against Hofstra, when he fanned six over 8.2 scoreless innings in a no-decision last season. In 14.2 career innings against the Pride, Yecker has allowed just seven hits and four walks and struck out 12. The first three relievers out of the bullpen, Ryan Cole, Anthony Smith and James Lally, played a part in the Red Storm's first shutout of the year (March 28 vs. Wagner), while Colin Lynch fanned two in a scoreless ninth.
Two St. John's upperclassmen, junior Gil Zayas and senior Chris Joachim, reached hitting landmarks in the game. Zayas went 3-for-4 with an RBI to raise his batting average to the .400 mark for the first time this season, while Joachim went 3-for-5 and reached the .300 mark for the first time in 2007. Sam DeLuca drove in a game-high three runs for the Red Storm, and Brian Kemp extended his hitting streak to 14 games with an opposite field single in the seventh inning.
St. John's loaded the bases, but came away empty handed in the first, then plated its two runs of the contest in the top of the second. Kemp hit an RBI groundout, and Joachim delivered a two-out RBI single to give the Red Storm a 2-0 lead.
Chris Anninos ripped an RBI single through the left side of the infield in the top of the fifth, and Ryan Mahoney knocked in two runs with a single into right field to stretch the lead to 5-0 through five innings. The Red Storm would add runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, putting the game well out of reach late.
The closer Lynch got some work in the ninth inning and threw 10 of 14 pitches for strikes in a 1-2-3 inning.
St. John's gets back into BIG EAST action this weekend, traveling to Georgetown for a three-game series that begins on Friday night at 7 p.m.
