Christina Melendez Ties RBI Record at the St. John’s Invitational

Friday, March 15

Queens, N.Y.

1:00 p.m.

St. John's University

8-13

Hofstra

8-11

HOFSTRA

St. John's

Christina Melendez Ties RBI Record at the St. John’s Invitational

3/15/2019 9:12:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

The senior utility player matches Loren Anguiano’s six RBIs in a game

By: Dylan Smith

QUEENS, N.Y. (March 15, 2019) – Senior Christina Melendez's six RBIs against Wagner tied the program record for most in a game as the Red Storm splits its opening day at the St. John's Invitational on Friday.

            With the six knock-in's, the Fullerton, Calif., native tied Loren Anguiano's record set on April 27, 2007, against Syracuse. She also became the second player of the season to nearly hit for the cycle against the Seahawks, joining Marissa Rizzi. Melendez sits three RBIs away from reaching 100 for her career.

            Today's game against the Seahawks also marked the most home runs (5) by St. John's since May 2018 when they demolished six against Fordham.

            After a stellar start on the road, Rizzi went 3-for-5 with three walks and her sixth home run of the season. Rizzi was one of four players to have a slugging percentage over one (1.200).

Game 1

            St. John's dropped its home opener to Hofstra, 9-3.

            The Pride (8-11) jumped out to a two-run lead against the Johnnies in the first frame. After a pair of walks, Courtney Scarpato lined an RBI single to left, giving Hofstra a one-run advantage, 1-0. In the next at-bat, Madison McKevitt hit a sacrifice fly to right, driving Meghan Giordano in from third to go up by two, 2-0.

            After a scoreless bottom frame by St. John's (9-13), the Pride tacked on another run, 3-0, on an RBI single by Kristin Hallam in the second.

            St. John's scored its first run of the game on a groundout by Laura Delgado to second base, driving Peyton Cody in from second and cutting its deficit to two, 3-1. Two batters later, Meisha Murray beat out an infield single while Kaitlyn Lologo crossed the plate for the Johnnies second run to pull within one, 3-2.

Hofstra responded with a one-spot in both the third and fourth frames. In the third, Angelina Ioppolo drilled a low double to left to go up by two, 4-2. In the following inning, the Pride's Scarpato smacked a solo shot to right, forcing the lead to three, 5-2.

            No runs crossed the plate until the Red Storm cut the lead to two, 5-3, on an RBI single by Lologo in the home half of the fifth. After Hofstra and St. John's exchanged zeroes on the scoreboard in the sixth, the Pride recorded a four-run seventh to put the game out of reach, 9-3.

Game 2

            The Red Storm topped Wagner, 13-9, in a back-and-forth battle between the two squads.

            Following a scoreless first frame, St. John's posted three runs in the bottom of the second. Lologo smacked her second home run of the season to give St. John's a 1-0 lead. After Cody hit a double down the left field line, Melendez drilled a two-run shot over the left field fence to extend the Johnnies' advantage to three, 3-0.

            Wagner responded with a five-spot in the third. Karen Prihoda tripled to left-center to cut the deficit to two, 3-1. After another run scored on an error by the Red Storm's defense, Natalie Del Ponte gave the Seahawks its first lead of the game, 5-3, after hitting a three-run dinger to left.

            In the bottom half of the third, Lologo and Cody delivered back-to-back, one-out singles to start the inning. Following the base knocks, Melendez delivered a two-run single to tie the game, 5-5. Two more runs crossed the plate in the next at-bat when Ditolvo hit a home run to left-center, extending the Red Storm's advantage to two, 7-5.

            The Seahawks countered Ditolvo's two-run shot with one of its own as Prihoda knotted the game, 7-7, in the fourth.

            The tie did not last very long as St. John's tagged Wagner with three runs in the bottom half. Murray and Rizzi reached base on singles to the left side. Two batters later, Cody roped her second hit down the left field line as the Johnnies claimed the lead, 8-7. Following the freshman's single, Melendez smacked a double off the right-center wall to clear the bases and expand the Johnnies' advantage to three, 10-7.

            After five half innings of back-and-forth action, the Red Storm and the Seahawks were held scoreless in the fifth. Angela Saric shutdown Wagner in the sixth frame before Rizzi belted a solo shot over the left field pole in the home half to take four-run lead, 11-7. After Melendez walked in her last chance to hit for the cycle, Ditolvo smacked her second dinger to go up six, 13-7, registering her first career multi-home run game.

            Wagner tacked on two more runs in the final frame before Saric closed the door for her third win of the season.

St. John's will return to action on Saturday when they take on Holy Cross for the first time in program history at 12 p.m.