Red Storm to Open Home Slate with Doubleheader against Manhattan

QUEENS, N.Y. – After seeing its scheduled home opener against Hofstra postponed on Wednesday, the St. John's baseball team will also have its weekend series against Manhattan changed due to the prospect of inclement weather. Instead of playing single games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the Johnnies and the Jaspers will now play a doubleheader on Friday and a single game on Sunday. The first game of Friday's twin bill is set for seven innings while the second contest is slated to go the full nine frames.

            Ian Murphy and Dylan Johnson are scheduled to take the mound in games one and two, respectively, for the Red Storm. Sunday's starting pitcher is to-be-determined.

            Murphy, a Preseason All-BIG EAST pick, will make his fourth start of the campaign after going 0-2 with a 5.40 ERA in his first three appearances. Last season, Murphy was nearly untouchable in Queens, compiling a 1.09 ERA in 24.2 innings of work with 30 strikeouts and only 16 walks in games played at Jack Kaiser Stadium. The Swedesboro, N.J., native held opponents to an anemic .122 batting average in Queens.

            Johnson will make his first collegiate start on Friday for the Johnnies. The former Newsday Long Island Player of the Year and Yastrzemski Award winner as Suffolk County's top player at Newfield High School owns the Red Storm's lone win of the season, going 1-0 with a 4.38 ERA in four relief appearances.

            The Red Storm will play its first game of the season in the Five Boroughs after dropping 11 of 12 games to begin the campaign. The Johnnies grabbed a win against Middle Tennessee State on opening weekend before falling in four straight on the West Coast against both Oregon and the University of San Francisco. St. John's is not scheduled to play a road game for the rest of March, as Friday will kick off a 13-game homestand.

            Two Johnnies enter the weekend hitting over .300 on the season. Tate Ballestero, a Morristown, N.J., native who played his first two collegiate seasons at Virginia, is hitting a team-high .341 with three extra-base hits, including two triples, and six RBIs. In the team's last four games against USF, Ballestero hit .385 (5-for-13). Junior college transfer Kevin Michaels is hitting .333 in nine appearances, all of which have been starts, but missed the last two games of the USF series.

            The top four Johnnies in terms of batting average on the season are all newcomers. After Ballestero and Michaels, freshmen Jackson Tucker and Luke Orbon rank third and fourth on the team, respectively, at .297 and .294. Tucker, a product of St. Joseph's by the Sea in Staten Island, has three multi-hit outings in 10 appearances, including a three-hit showing in the opener against Oregon, and leads the team with three doubles. Orbon, another local product from New Hyde Park, went deep twice against San Francisco and is the only Johnnie to launch multiple home runs so far this season.

            After hitting .150 in his first five games of the season, redshirt junior Nick Cirelli enjoyed a breakout series in his return to the Bay Area. The Martinez, Calif., native batted .462 against the Dons, logging a hit in all four of his appearances with a pair of multi-hit performances. Cirelli drove in six runs on the week, including a three-run home run in Sunday's finale.

            Manhattan will take the short trip to Queens on the heels of three straight wins, taking two of three from Fairleigh Dickinson in Teaneck this past weekend before defeating Hofstra, 9-4, on Tuesday afternoon in Hempstead. The Jaspers dropped seven of their first eight to start the season with their lone win coming in dominant fashion, 11-1, over Delaware in Deland, Fla.

            Four everyday starters are hitting over .300 for the Jaspers, led by graduate student David Bermudez at an eye-popping .444. The East Brunswick, N.J., native also leads the team in home runs (3), doubles (5) and RBIs (12). Jack Lynch, another graduate student who began his collegiate career at Division III Ithaca, is hitting .385.

            On the mound, two of the Jaspers' projected weekend starters enter the series with ERAs of 4.00 or better. Jordan Warecke has compiled a 3.37 ERA, striking out 21 batters and walking only seven in 18.2 innings of work. Will Hesslink is 1-2 with a 4.00 ERA, but has issued only four walks 18.0 frames.

            St. John's and Manhattan will meet in the regular season for the first time since May 17, 2005, when future first rounder Craig Hansen recorded his 13^th save of the year in a 13-5 Red Storm win.

            Since 1956, the Red Storm is 25-9 against Manhattan and has won 14 of the last 15 meetings between the two teams dating back to 1967.

Red Storm to Open Home Slate with Doubleheader against Manhattan

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Players Mentioned

Tate Ballestero

Nick Cirelli

Dylan Johnson

Kevin Michaels

Ian Murphy

Luke Orbon

Jackson Tucker

St. John's University Athletics