Red Storm Heads to Indy for Four with Butler

The St. John's baseball team will hit the road for the final time of the 2021 regular season this weekend when it travels to Indianapolis for a four-game series with Butler. Due to a Sunday forecast calling for rain, the Johnnies and the Bulldogs will now play back-to-back doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday. Friday's twin-bill is set to start at noon while first pitch for Saturday's opening game is scheduled for 1 p.m.

The Red Storm enters the penultimate weekend of the regular season in need of wins. The Johnnies have lost three of four in back-to-back series, falling to first-place Creighton in Omaha before dropping their set against UConn this past weekend at The Jack. St. John's currently sits with a record of 6-13 against BIG EAST foes, four and a half games behind Xavier in fourth place. The Red Storm will need to climb its way into the top four in order to extend its conference-record streak of 16 consecutive BIG EAST Tournament appearances.

St. John's, which sports an overall record of 15-18 heading into the Butler series, will also look to avoid finishing with a sub .500 mark for just the third time in a full season since World War II. In 1951, the team went 9-10 under the direction of Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Frank McGuire. 62 years later, the 2013 squad went 23-35 a year after advancing to an NCAA Super Regional and losing four players to the top six rounds of the 2012 MLB Draft. The Johnnies would rebound to win BIG EAST Regular Season and Tournament titles two years later in 2015.

This past weekend, two of the Red Storm's three losses to UConn were by two runs or fewer, as the Huskies took the opener, 4-3, before claiming the series finale, 5-3, in 10 innings. The Johnnies led after the seventh inning of both of those contests. The four pitchers that are scheduled to make starts for the Red Storm against Butler—Nick Mondak, Ian Murphy, Matt Semon and Tyler Roche—combined to allow just five earned runs in 17.2 innings of work against the Huskies, good enough for an ERA of 2.55. Roche struck out six in 4.1 scoreless frame on Sunday. Mondak and Semon both left in line for a win after a half-dozen innings. Mondak surrendered one run and fanned six while Semon allowed a pair of runs and punched out four. Murphy, who had been battling a bout of triceps tendinitis, is scheduled to return to the starting rotation for the first time since the Seton Hall series.

Two Johnnies enter the weekend hitting better than .290, led by redshirt junior outfielder Brian Morrell at .298. Morrell has done most of his damage in BIG EAST play, starting 12 of his 14 appearances against league foes and hitting a team-high .333. Marty Higgins has also excelled against conference opponents, batting .294 overall and .328 in league action.

Justin Folz started off the UConn series strong, going 5-for-7 with two doubles in his first two outings, including the game-winner two-run double in game two.

Like St. John's, Butler is in need of some wins entering the home stretch of the season, sporting a 4-9 record in BIG EAST play. Two of those wins came in a series victory against Villanova late last month in Indianapolis.

As a team, the Bulldogs are hitting .242, led by senior first baseman Dan Harwood at .347. The Brecksville, Ohio, native also leads the squad in home runs (5), RBIs (23) and doubles (7). AJ Poynter, a sophomore infielder who has played in just 16 of the team's 29 games, ranks second on the squad with a .344 batting average.

The Butler pitching staff boasts an ERA of 6.11 and has allowed opponents to hit .294. Three of the team's four scheduled starters carry losing records on the season with the lowest ERA of the quartet belonging to projected Friday starter Nick Eaton at 4.18. The redshirt junior southpaw has struck out 38 batters and allowed only 10 walks in 28.0 innings of work.

St. John's and Butler will meet on Friday for the 20th time in the history of the two programs. The Red Storm carries a 16-3 record in their previous meetings, all of which have occurred since the Bulldogs joined the BIG EAST for the 2013-14 academic year.

The Johnnies are 8-1 at Bulldog Park, including three-game series sweeps in 2015 and 2017. The Red Storm took two of three from Butler during its last trip to Indianapolis in 2019.

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Players Mentioned

Justin Folz

Marty Higgins

Nick Mondak

Brian Morrell

Ian Murphy

Tyler Roche

Matt Semon

St. John's University Athletics