St. John's University Athletics
St. John’s Gears Up for Nationally-Ranked UCLA and Michigan
3/2/2020 1:53:00 PM | Softball
Red Storm is coming off of a 3-2 weekend at the San Diego Classic
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (March 2, 2020) – Following a successful 3-2 weekend at the San Diego Classic, the St. John's softball team will look to dethrone nationally-ranked powerhouses UCLA and Michigan at Easton Stadium on Tuesday.
The Red Storm will take on the No. 13/13 Wolverines at 7:30 p.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. PT, before squaring off with defending National Champion No. 1/1 UCLA at Easton Stadium at 10:00 p.m. ET / 7:00 p.m. PT.
At the San Diego Classic, the Johnnies downed Long Beach State, San Jose State and Mount St. Mary's, moving to 5-5 in their last 10 games while holding a 7-13 record in 2020.
In its 3-2 stunner over San Jose State, St. John's halted one of NCAA's longest winning streaks this season, a Spartans' record of 17 games. A solo home run by Kalei Sorensen, a pair of RBIs from Laura Delgado and the first career complete game shutout by Erin Brown cooled the Spartans' hot stretch. San Jose State went on to deliver a 13-0 routing of Weber State is the following game on Saturday, unloading 11 runs and a grand slam in the first inning.
February 29 will forever hold a rare occurrence in NCAA history as Sorensen and her twin sister, Kennedi, who plays for UC Riverside, smacked home runs on the same day with two different teams. The last recorded time a set of siblings crushed homers on the same day with their respective squads came on April 28, 2018, when the Bogarts brothers, Garrett (Savannah State), Cody (Embry-Riddle) and Austin (Stetson), accomplished the feat.
St. John's assistant coach and former UCLA catcher Alyssa Tiumalu will head back to Easton Stadium for the first time as a coach after spending four seasons (2011-14) under Bruins' Head Coach Kelly Inouye-Perez. In her time with UCLA, Tiumalu posted 18 home runs, 49 runs scored and 64 RBIs.
The last time St. John's took down a ranked opponent was on May 10, 2012, when the Johnnies registered their first win in the BIG EAST Tournament in nearly 10 years by taking down No. 25/24 Syracuse, 2-1.
Furthermore, the 2012 season was also the last time the Red Storm took down two opponents receiving at least one vote in both the USA Today/NFCA and ESPN/USA Softball Top 25 polls. St. John's downed the Orange in its regular season matchup on March 31, 2012, by a score of 6-1.
UCLA (19-1) enters Tuesday's game following its first loss of the season to No. 3/3 Texas on Feb. 27, before cruising through the San Diego Classic with a 4-0 record.
All 10 UCLA batters with at least 20 at-bats this season are hitting .300 or better through the team's first 20 games. Aaliyah Jordan, Briana Perez and Maya Brady have been active contributors offensively, combining for 75 of the team's 147 RBIs while also crossing the plate 57 times.
After starting the season with a 10-0 record, Michigan (12-6) has struggled, falling in six of the team's last eight games. In those losses, the Wolverines dropped a trio of contests to ranked opponents including No. 2/2 Texas, No. 3/3 Texas, and then-No. 22/23 South Carolina.
Michigan's pitchers Meghan Beaubain and Alex Storako have evenly split the team's 12 wins this season, combining for 173 strikeouts and eight complete games.
