LaSorsa Pitches St. John’s Past Saint Louis, 6-2, in Series Opener

Friday, March 29

Saint Louis, Mo. (Billiken Sports Center)

2 p.m.

St. John's University

11-10

Saint Louis

11-14

St. John's

Saint Louis

LaSorsa Pitches St. John’s Past Saint Louis, 6-2, in Series Opener

3/29/2019 5:14:00 PM | Baseball

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Junior left hander allowed no earned runs and four hits in seven innings of work

By: Andrew O'Connell

Behind yet another stellar outing on the mound from Joe LaSorsa, the St. John's baseball team took the opener of its series against Saint Louis, topping the Billikens, 6-2, on Friday afternoon.

LaSorsa allowed no earned runs and just four hits in seven innings of work. He fanned eight batters, a new career high, and surrendered just one walk. The junior left hander has given up only one earned run in his last four appearances, a span of 26.2 innings.

Joe Kelly logged his first save of the season, retiring all six Billiken batters he faced after relieving LaSorsa.

Four Johnnies recorded multi-hit outings on a day that saw the Red Storm total 11 hits. Ryan Markey went 2-for-4 with two RBIs while Carson Bartels went 2-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored.

Mike Antico tripled in one of his two hits, while Brandon Miller doubled and drove in a run during his 2-for-3 showing.

Peter Abinanti executed two sacrifices in as many plate appearances, including a run-scoring squeeze in the top of the ninth.

Wyatt Mascarella and Ryan Hogan both doubled and scored a run against the Billikens.

After two scoreless frames to open the game, the Red Storm struck first in the top of the third. Hogan led off the inning with a double before a Rudy Aguilar single through the left side put runners on the corners with no outs. Antico hit into a 4-6-3 double play in the following at-bat, allowing Hogan to score from third and putting the Johnnies on top, 1-0.

Both teams went scoreless until the top of the sixth, when Mascarella and Miller kicked off the frame with back-to-back two-baggers to put St. John's ahead by a pair, 2-0. Two batters later, Markey smacked a run-scoring single to right center, bringing home Miller and bumping the Red Storm advantage to three.

The Billikens cut into the St. John's lead in the bottom half of the frame, taking advantage of two Red Storm fielding errors and pushing across two unearned runs to pull within one, 3-2, heading into the seventh.

After both sides went scoreless in the seventh, the Johnnies added an insurance run in the top of the eighth. With runners on the corners and one out, Markey delivered his second RBI knock of the day, pushing a single through the right side and putting St. John's on top 4-2.

Joe Kelly made quick work of Saint Louis in the eighth before Antico led off the top of the ninth with a triple before promptly coming home to score on a Bartels RBI single up the middle. Bartels then took second on a wild pitch before moving to third on an Andrew DuPont grounder, setting up a picture perfect squeeze bunt by Abinanti to make it 6-2 in favor of the Johnnies heading into the bottom of the ninth.