St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Opens BIG EAST Tournament Against USF
5/23/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 23, 2010
- 2010 BIG EAST Tournament Central Page (Schedule, Live Video, Live Stats)
- 2010 BIG EAST Bracket
- Follow St. John's Baseball On Twitter
- Game Notes (PDF)
QUEENS, N.Y. - After earning the No. 4 seed in the 2010 BIG EAST Tournament, St. John's will open play against No. 5 USF on May 26 at 8 p.m. in the fourth game on the opening day of play. All games of the 2010 BIG EAST Tournament will be played in Clearwater, Fla., at Bright House Field, the Spring Training home of the Philadelphia Phillies and home of the Class-A Advanced Clearwater Threshers. The Red Storm is appearing in its conference-record 19th BIG EAST Tournament and its sixth-straight, and is tied for the conference-record with five tournament championships. Head coach Ed Blankmeyer has led St. John's to the tournament 11 times in 15 seasons and has posted a 16-18 record, including the 1997 crown.
Stat Of The Week
5: St. John's and Notre Dame have each won a conference-record five BIG EAST Tournament crowns.
Inside The Series With USF
- St. John's and USF have met just 14 times in a series that dates back to 2006.
- The Red Storm leads the series 9-5 and took two of three in a home series against the Bulls this season.
- St. John's is 1-1 against USF in BIG EAST Tournament games.
Scouting The Bulls (25-30, 16-11)
- USF took two of three games at Pitt to conclude the regular season.
- Stephen Hunt paces the offense with team-bests in doubles (19), home runs (7) and RBI (42).
- Todd Brazeal has 35 RBI, while Junior Carlin has 32 RBI.
- The pitching staff has a 4.87 ERA and allows a .272 batting average.
St. John's In The BIG EAST Tournament
- St. John's is making its conference-record 19th appearance in the BIG EAST Tournament since 1985, the first year of the tournament, and is 33-29 all-time.
- St. John's is tied for the conference-record with five tournament crowns (1985, 1986, 1988, 1993 and 1997) and has finished as runners-up twice (1991 and 1993).
- Four players (Tom Finke-1986, Mike Weinberg-1988, Mike Maerten-1993, Mike Dzurilla-1997) have earned the Jack Kaiser Award as the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
Seven Homer Day At BC Includes Back-To-Back-To-Back Blasts
- St. John's launched a season-best seven home runs on May 18 in a 17-9 win at Boston College.
- Joe Panik and Jeremy Baltz each homered twice, while Greg Hopkins, Jimmy Parque and Sean O'Hare added one apiece.
- Baltz, Hopkins and Parque connected on back-to-back-to-back home runs in the fourth inning.
First-Career Home Run For O'Hare Is Grand
- Freshman Sean O'Hare connected on his first-career home run in a 17-9 win against Boston College on May 18, a two-out grand slam in a nine-run third inning for the Red Storm.
- The grand slam was the third of the season for St. John's. Jeremy Baltz accomplished the feat on April 1 against Seton Hall, while Paul Karmas had the season's first in a 31-6 win against UNO on Feb. 21.
