St. John's University Athletics
Friday, March 8
Irvine, Calif. (Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark)
9 p.m.
St. John's University
at
UC Irvine
St. John’s Begins Second Ranked Series of the Year at No. 24 UC Irvine
3/7/2019 3:20:00 PM | Baseball
The Red Storm and the Anteaters will play three games beginning on Friday at 9 p.m.
The St. John's baseball team will close out its second California trip of the season with its second series against a ranked foe, traveling to No. 24 UC Irvine for a three-game set with the Anteaters. First pitch on both Friday and Saturday is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET, while Sunday's finale is slated to kick off at 4 p.m. ET.
An audio broadcast of all three games will be available through UC Irvine's radio station, KUCI. Live stats will be provided on UCIrvineSports.com.
After struggling offensively through the first seven games of the season, the Red Storm has experienced a resurgence at the dish over the course of its last two contests. Beginning with a 7-5 win over San Diego in the series finale on Monday evening, the Johnnies are batting .311 in their last two contests with averages of 8.0 runs and 11.5 hits per outing. In the team's first seven games, the Johnnies hit just .160 and averaged a touch over two runs per contest. Despite coming out on the wrong end of a back-and-forth affair on Tuesday afternoon against CSUN, the Red Storm recorded season highs for hits (14) and runs (9).
Leading the way for St. John's over the past two games has been Peter Abinanti, a redshirt junior from Woodland Hills, Calif. The Los Angeles Mission College transfer, who missed all of 2018 with injury, went 4-for-7 with two RBIs in his first collegiate starts, going 2-for-3 against San Diego on Monday before registering a 2-for-4 outing against CSUN. Abinanti also drew a walk and drove in a run in each of those two appearances.
Abinanti was one of six Johnnies to record multiple hits against the Matadors, as Carson Bartels, Josh Greene, Ryan Markey, Wyatt Mascarella and Colin Wetterau also picked up two hits apiece for the Red Storm. Mascarella blasted the team's sixth home run of the season with a three-run shot in the seventh. In a bit of a statistical oddity, the Red Storm has more home runs (6) than doubles (5) in the early going this year.
All three of the Red Storm's starting pitchers earned no decisions during the San Diego series, but none put up a performance quite as impressive as Sean Mooney's. Taking the hill on Sunday instead of in his usual Friday role as a result of the team's modified schedule, Mooney allowed one-run and struck out six in 7.0 innings of work, scattering six hits and a pair of walks.
The Red Storm's best pitching performance of the San Diego series came out of the bullpen, as senior right-hander Joe Kelly helped seal the Johnnies' Monday victory over the Toreros. After entering the game with runners on the corners and two outs in the fourth, Kelly carried St. John's the rest of the way, giving up just one run, two walks and a pair of hits in 5.1 innings of work. The Glendora, Calif., native needed just 65 pitches to record his 16 outs.
UC Irvine has put together an impressive early season resume so far in 2019, entering the weekend with a record of 7-3. The Anteaters opened the campaign with a series victory against Washington before sweeping a three-game road set at Rice and taking both ends of a doubleheader at Missouri State.
The Anteaters averaged more than nine runs per game during their series sweep of Rice, but UC Irvine's most impressive attribute this season has been its pitching. The Anteaters sport a 3.38 team ERA and have limited opponents to a meager .209 batting average over their first 10 games. Their 1.13 team WHIP ranks 21st nationally through games played on Wednesday. UC Irvine boasts four relievers with three or more appearances and a 0.00 ERA while the team's three-man weekend rotation features two hurlers with sub 1.60 ERAs.
At the dish, junior infielder Brandon Lewis has launched five home runs in 10 games and driven in a team-best 15 runs for the Anteaters. He also boasts a team-leading .302 battering average. On the whole, UC Irvine is hitting .213 on the season.
An audio broadcast of all three games will be available through UC Irvine's radio station, KUCI. Live stats will be provided on UCIrvineSports.com.
After struggling offensively through the first seven games of the season, the Red Storm has experienced a resurgence at the dish over the course of its last two contests. Beginning with a 7-5 win over San Diego in the series finale on Monday evening, the Johnnies are batting .311 in their last two contests with averages of 8.0 runs and 11.5 hits per outing. In the team's first seven games, the Johnnies hit just .160 and averaged a touch over two runs per contest. Despite coming out on the wrong end of a back-and-forth affair on Tuesday afternoon against CSUN, the Red Storm recorded season highs for hits (14) and runs (9).
Leading the way for St. John's over the past two games has been Peter Abinanti, a redshirt junior from Woodland Hills, Calif. The Los Angeles Mission College transfer, who missed all of 2018 with injury, went 4-for-7 with two RBIs in his first collegiate starts, going 2-for-3 against San Diego on Monday before registering a 2-for-4 outing against CSUN. Abinanti also drew a walk and drove in a run in each of those two appearances.
Abinanti was one of six Johnnies to record multiple hits against the Matadors, as Carson Bartels, Josh Greene, Ryan Markey, Wyatt Mascarella and Colin Wetterau also picked up two hits apiece for the Red Storm. Mascarella blasted the team's sixth home run of the season with a three-run shot in the seventh. In a bit of a statistical oddity, the Red Storm has more home runs (6) than doubles (5) in the early going this year.
All three of the Red Storm's starting pitchers earned no decisions during the San Diego series, but none put up a performance quite as impressive as Sean Mooney's. Taking the hill on Sunday instead of in his usual Friday role as a result of the team's modified schedule, Mooney allowed one-run and struck out six in 7.0 innings of work, scattering six hits and a pair of walks.
The Red Storm's best pitching performance of the San Diego series came out of the bullpen, as senior right-hander Joe Kelly helped seal the Johnnies' Monday victory over the Toreros. After entering the game with runners on the corners and two outs in the fourth, Kelly carried St. John's the rest of the way, giving up just one run, two walks and a pair of hits in 5.1 innings of work. The Glendora, Calif., native needed just 65 pitches to record his 16 outs.
UC Irvine has put together an impressive early season resume so far in 2019, entering the weekend with a record of 7-3. The Anteaters opened the campaign with a series victory against Washington before sweeping a three-game road set at Rice and taking both ends of a doubleheader at Missouri State.
The Anteaters averaged more than nine runs per game during their series sweep of Rice, but UC Irvine's most impressive attribute this season has been its pitching. The Anteaters sport a 3.38 team ERA and have limited opponents to a meager .209 batting average over their first 10 games. Their 1.13 team WHIP ranks 21st nationally through games played on Wednesday. UC Irvine boasts four relievers with three or more appearances and a 0.00 ERA while the team's three-man weekend rotation features two hurlers with sub 1.60 ERAs.
At the dish, junior infielder Brandon Lewis has launched five home runs in 10 games and driven in a team-best 15 runs for the Anteaters. He also boasts a team-leading .302 battering average. On the whole, UC Irvine is hitting .213 on the season.
Players Mentioned
OF
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INF
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UTIL
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RHP
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