St. John's University Athletics
St. John’s Downs Fairleigh Dickinson, 11-4
4/16/2019 7:09:00 PM | Baseball
Johnnies pick up 20th win of the season, 17th in last 21 tries
The Red Storm (20-13) has now won 17 of its last 21 games dating back to mid-March and is 11-0 against non-BIG EAST opponents in Queens.
St. John's recorded its 11 runs on 11 hits and 11 walks. Three Johnnies registered multi-hit outings, led by Ryan Markey with a 2-for-4, three-RBI showing. Brandon Miller went 2-for-3 with an RBI, a run scored and two walks while Sean McGeehan also logged two hits and drove in a run.
Carson Bartels and Chris Stefl both doubled and drove in two runs apiece. Mike Antico, Colin Wetterau and Brandon Bossard also recorded hits. Bossard also tallied an RBI for the fifth time in his last seven outings.
Freshman Brian Hendry was credited with his first career win on the bump after tossing a 1-2-3 top of the seventh. Ethan Routzahn and Joe Kelly combined to strike out the side in the ninth after Chris Henry threw a scoreless eighth.
After FDU (7-25-1) plated a pair of runs in the top of the first, St. John's responded with a single tally in the home half of the frame. Miller and Wyatt Mascarella drew consecutive two-out walks before Markey ripped an RBI single into left, bringing the Johnnies within one after one.
Following a scoreless top of the second from Nick Mondak, the Red Storm struck for four runs in the bottom of the inning. After loading the bases with one out, the Johnnies brought home two runs on a Bartels double to right, as the FDU second baseman lost a shallow fly ball in the sun. Following a run-scoring Mascarella groundout to the right side, Miller legged out an RBI infield single to push the St. John's lead to three, 5-2, heading into the third.
The two teams went scoreless until the bottom of the fifth, when McGeehan belted a leadoff ground-rule double before coming around to score two batters late on a Bossard single to left.
Ahead 6-2 after five, St. John's saw FDU's Sal Monticciolo launch a two-run homer to right and cut the Red Storm advantage to a pair heading into the bottom of the sixth.
The Johnnies responded with two runs of their own in the home half of the frame to quickly reestablish their lead. With runners on the corners and no outs, Markey poked an RBI groundout to the pitcher to score the inning's first run. Two batters later, McGeehan singled to left, bringing home Miller and extending the Red Storm advantage back to four, 8-4.
After keeping FDU off the board in the seventh, the Johnnies tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the frame. With runners on second and third, Stefl belted his first hit of the year, a two-run double into the right-center gap. The Floral Park, N.Y., native would come around to score the game's final run two batters later on a Markey two-bagger to left.
St. John's returns to action at Jack Kaiser Stadium on Thursday afternoon, playing host to Villanova for the first of three BIG EAST contests. Friday's contest against the Wildcats will be played at NYIT before the series finale on Saturday at The Jack. All three tilts are scheduled for a 1 p.m. first pitch.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Hendry, Brian (1-0)
L: SEBURN, Ryan (0-1)
Batting:
2B: RUSCITTI, Tom 1 ; MCDONALD, Evan 1
HR: MONTICCIOLO, Sal 1
RBI: MCDONALD, Evan 1 ; MONTICCIOLO, Sal 2
SH: GRUBER, Michael 1
Base Running:
RUNS: RUSCITTI, Tom 1 ; MCDONALD, Evan 1 ; SOCCI, Tony 1 ; MONTICCIOLO, Sal 1
CS: SOCCI, Tony 1 ; MONTICCIOLO, Sal 1

Batting:
2B: Bartels, Carson 1 ; Stefl, Chris 1 ; Markey, Ryan 1 ; McGeehan, Sean 1 ; Wetterau, Colin 1
RBI: Bartels, Carson 2 ; Mascarella, Wyatt 1 ; Stefl, Chris 2 ; Miller, Brandon 1 ; Markey, Ryan 3 ; McGeehan, Sean 1 ; Bossard, Brandon 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Antico, Mike 2 ; Bartels, Carson 1 ; Mascarella, Wyatt 2 ; Stefl, Chris 1 ; Miller, Brandon 1 ; McGeehan, Sean 1 ; Wetterau, Colin 1 ; Bossard, Brandon 2
SB: Antico, Mike 1 ; Miller, Brandon 1 ; McGeehan, Sean 2