St. John’s Completes Sweep of Seton Hall, Locks up No. 3 Seed in BIG EAST Championship

Saturday, May 18

Queens, N.Y. (Jack Kaiser Stadium)

1 p.m.

St. John's University

30-21, 9-9

Seton Hall

25-26, 9-9

Seton Hall

St. John's

Photo by: Paul Ziff

St. John’s Completes Sweep of Seton Hall, Locks up No. 3 Seed in BIG EAST Championship

5/18/2019 5:15:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Johnnies down the Pirates 6-2 for their first sweep of Seton Hall since 2010

By: Andrew O'Connell

QUEENS, N.Y. (May 18, 2019) – The St. John's baseball team jumped out to a two-run lead in the bottom of the first and never looked back, sweeping Seton Hall with a 6-2 victory in Saturday's regular season finale at Jack Kaiser Stadium.

The Red Storm (30-21, 9-9 BIG EAST) has clinched the no. 3 seed in next week's BIG EAST Baseball Championship by virtue of its Seton Hall sweep, the first for St. John's over the Pirates since 2010. The Johnnies, who will be making their 16^th consecutive BIG EAST Tournament appearance, will begin postseason play against second-seeded Xavier on Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. at Prasco Park in Mason, Ohio. Seton Hall (25-26, 9-9 BIG EAST) will face BIG EAST Regular Season Champion Creighton in the opening game of the tournament on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.

Nick Mondak improved to 2-2 on the season with five innings on two-run ball, striking out seven and allowing just five Pirates to reach base. Ian Murphy relieved Mondak with 2.2 frames of one-hit work before Gavin Hollowell shut the door for his eighth save of the year. The 6-foot-7 right hander surrendered no hits and struck out three in 1.1 innings.

Ryan Markey and Ryan Hogan both picked up a pair of two-RBI hits to lead the Red Storm. Brandon Miller went 2-for-4 and drove in a run while Mike Antico went 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored. Peter Abinanti and Wyatt Mascarella also scored twice for St. John's.

Seton Hall quickly got on the board in the top of the first, as Jerry Huntzinger laced a leadoff double before coming around to score on another two-bagger from Christian Del Castillo.

The Red Storm wasted no time responding, plating three runs in the home half of the frame to take an early 3-1 lead. Markey ripped his third double of the series to bring home the first two runs before Miller beat out a ball up the middle to extend the inning and plate another runner. Earlier in the inning, Antico singled while Abinanti and Mascarella walked to start the rally.

The Johnnies tacked onto their lead in the following frame, as Abinanti and Brandon Bossard led off the inning with base knocks before the former came around to score on a Mascarella sac fly, making it 4-1 in favor of the Red Storm after two.

Seton Hall trimmed the St. John's advantage to two in the top of the fifth before the Red Storm bounced back with two more tallies in the home half to make it 6-2. Both of those runs came off the bat of Hogan, who delivered a key two-run single for the second time in as many days.

The first three days of the BIG EAST Baseball Championship will be broadcast on the BIG EAST Digital Network. Championship Sunday will air live on FS2. St. John's, the winningest program in BIG EAST history, will look to claim its league record 10^th conference title and its third in the last five years.