St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
Seton Hall
Senior Day Walk-Off Completes Sweep Over Seton Hall
5/8/2016 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Box Score (PDF)
Follow @StJohnsSoftball on Twitter
QUEENS, N.Y. -- The St. John's softball team closed out the regular-season with its seventh-straight victory as the Red Storm captured a 4-3 walk-off win over Seton Hall to complete a series sweep on Senior Day at Red Storm Field.
For the second-straight season, St. John's (28-19) will take on Villanova in the semifinals of the BIG EAST Tournament. The Red Storm ended the season on a high-note with four-straight conference series wins to clinch the No. 3 seed behind a 12-7 BIG EAST record. The Wildcats (32-17) are the No. 2 seed as they finished conference play, 14-6.
With the bases loaded and one out in the seventh, Hannah Anderson came through with a clutch game-winning single to plate Krystal Puga and send the seniors out in walk-off fashion. Anderson and Puga each registered two hits, a run and an RBI.
Grace Kramer (15-11) was excelling in relief, striking out four over 3.0 innings of scoreless ball to get the win. Freshman Madison Morris got the start and allowed three runs, two earned, in 4.0 innings.
Madison Strunk (14-16) was charged with the loss after giving up the game-winning run in the seventh. Chrisa Head surrendered three runs on nine hits in 5.2 innings of work.
Monique Landini had two hits, which included an RBI double. Brittany Garcia had a hit and scored, while Kaitlyn Wilkens came off the bench and contributed with an RBI single.
In her final game in front of the home crowd, senior Yvonne Rericha scored and recorded a hit, while Carly Williams also posted a hit. Fellow classmate Shirley Chui registered her first-career hit with a single in her final at-bat of the game.
Seton Hall took advantage of the muddy field conditions, opening the game with three bunt singles in its first at-bats to plate a run and take its first lead of the series.
Puga answered the bell in the bottom half of the first with an RBI triple the other way to plate Garcia, who singled the at-bat before. An error, single and walk loaded the bases for Seton Hall with no outs in the third inning. Chrisa Head then drove in her second run of the afternoon on a sac fly before Ragen Reddick made it 3-1 with a single to right field.
In the bottom half of the third, St. John's cut the deficit to one run. Rericha singled and scored on Landini's double to center field, her sixth of the season.
Kramer entered the circle following four solid innings from Murray and picked up three strikeouts in her first two innings of work.
In the sixth, Wilkens came off the bench and delivered an RBI single with a runner on second to even the score at 3-3.
With one out, Puga and Savannah Warren recorded back-to-back singles to get the seventh inning rally going. Zick then drew a walk before Anderson notched the game-winning hit.
Next up for the Red Storm is a Friday showdown against Villanova in a rematch of last season's conference semifinals. Last year, St. John's captured a 5-4 victory over the Wildcats before winning its first BIG EAST Championship title against Seton Hall in the finals.
For all the latest news on the St. John's softball team, log on to RedStormSports.com and follow the team (@StJohnsSoftball) on Twitter. If you would like to be added to the St. John's softball mailing list, send an email to stjcommunications@stjohns.edu with the subject line "Softball Mailing List".
