St. John’s Stifles Xavier, 2-0, in BIG EAST Championship Opener

Thursday, May 23

Mason, Ohio (Prasco Park)

6:30 p.m.

St. John's University

31-21

Xavier

25-30

St. John's

Xavier

St. John’s Stifles Xavier, 2-0, in BIG EAST Championship Opener

5/23/2019 11:23:00 PM | Baseball

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Joe LaSorsa throws 7.1 scoreless innings to lead the Johnnies past Xavier

By: Andrew O'Connell

MASON, OHIO (May 23, 2019) – Behind yet another stellar outing from Joe LaSorsa, the St. John's baseball team topped Xavier, 2-0, in its BIG EAST Championship opener to earn a Friday date with Creighton in the winners' bracket at Prasco Park.

LaSorsa, who threw eight scoreless innings in his last outing of the regular season, cruised through 7.1 shutout frames on just 78 pitches, 59 of which were strikes, against the host Musketeers. Xavier (25-30) scattered five hits on the evening and drew no walks while striking out three times against the junior southpaw. Between the fourth and seventh innings, LaSorsa retired 11 straight batters.

Gavin Hollowell took the mound with one out in the eighth and retired all five batters he faced to pick up his ninth save of the season. Hollowell now has seven saves in his last eight appearances and has picked up the save in six of the team's last seven wins overall. Thursday also marked the sixth time this season that Hollowell has recorded a save that went longer than one inning.

St. John's (31-21) tallied 12 hits on the evening, led by a pair of three-hit outings from Ryan Hogan and Mike Antico. Antico also drove in the Red Storm's insurance run in the top of the ninth to record the game's lone RBI.

Sean McGeehan went 2-for-4 with a triple and scored both of the Red Storm's runs. Ryan Markey also picked up a pair of hits for the Johnnies.

Peter Abinanti and Carson Bartels logged base hits in the Red Storm's first ever postseason win against the Musketeers.

After leaving runners on base in the second, third and fourth innings, the Red Storm struck for the game's first run in the top of the fifth. McGeehan led off the frame with a single over the head of the shortstop, Chris Givin, before moving to second on a Brandon Bossard sac bunt and taking third on a botched pick off. After failing to score on an Abinanti chopper to second in the following at-bat, McGeehan came home when a Bartels grounder up the middle was mishandled by Givin, giving St. John's the first lead of the evening.

St. John's threatened again in the top of the seventh, as Abinanti and Bartels recorded back-to-back two-out singles to put runners on the corners for Antico, but the junior grounded out to keep the Red Storm's lead at one.

Antico came through two innings later, blooping a single into left to give St. John's a two-run edge heading into the bottom of the ninth. McGeehan led off the frame with a triple off center field wall, but the next two St. John's batter went down on strikes. After Bartels walked, Antico went inside-out on a breaking ball and brought McGeehan home.

St. John's will face Creighton, the BIG EAST Regular Season Champion, on Friday evening at 6:30 p.m. The game will be streamed on the BIG EAST Digital Network, available on Twitter and Caffeine TV.