St. John’s Drops Series Finale to Xavier, 18-6

Sunday, April 11

Queens, N.Y. (Jack Kaiser Stadium)

12 p.m.

St. John's University

10-7, 1-2

Xavier

11-14, 2-1

Xavier

St. John's

4/11/2021 4:19:00 PM | Baseball

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Johnnies resume play at Georgetown next weekend

By: Andrew O'Connell

With the game tied at three after three innings, Xavier outscored St. John's by a margin of 15-3 over the next four frames, as the Musketeers captured the series victory with an 18-6 win at Jack Kaiser Stadium.

The game, which featured a steady rain throughout, was called after seven innings.

Seven different Johnnies logged hits on the afternoon, all of them singles. Jake Lazzaro, and Mitchell Henshaw reached base three times, as Lazzaro singled and walked twice while Henshaw walked twice and was hit by a pitch.

Ryan Hogan, Marty Higgins, Brian Morrell and Carlos Hidalgo all singled and drove in a run during Sunday's series finale. Carson Bartels walked twice and logged an RBI.

Xavier scored its 18 runs on just 10 hits, as Red Storm pitchers issued eight walks and hit six batters. Tyler Roche was tagged with the loss in his first collegiate start.

Tim Cunningham was a bright spot out of the bullpen, striking out two and allowing one hit in 1.1 innings of scoreless work.

Xavier struck for three runs in the top of the first, all of which were unearned. Roche retired the first two Musketeer batters of the game before a ball grazed off Hidalgo's glove in center, allowing Ryan Altenberger to advance all the way to third. Altenberger came home on a Natale Monastra single before Luke Stephenson deposited a ball over the wall in center, giving Xavier an early 3-0 lead.

St. John's evened the score in the bottom of the second, as David Williams, Higgins, Morrell, Hidalgo and Lazzaro logged base knocks that resulted in three runs. All but one of those hits, a leadoff infield single from Williams, came with two outs.

Following a scoreless third, Xavier hung up another three-spot in the top of the fourth. Andrew Walker lined two-RBI single through the right side before Jack Housinger lifted a sac fly to left for the inning's final run.

Trailing 6-3 after three and a half, the Johnnies drew three walks to load the bases before Williams went down swinging for the inning's final out, preserving the three-run Xavier lead heading into the fifth.

Vincent Bianchi led off the bottom of the fifth with an infield single before a pair of walks to Henshaw and Higgins loaded the bases with no outs. The Red Storm managed just a single run, as Morrell recorded an RBI fielder's choice to make it 6-4 before Hidalgo went down on strikes and Lazzaro grounded out to second to end the frame.

Xavier combined to score 12 runs over the next two innings, pulling ahead by as many as 14 before the Red Storm plated two runs in the bottom of the seventh.

St. John's is scheduled to return to action next weekend for a four-game series at Georgetown. Friday's first pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.