St. John’s Splits Friday Doubleheader with Manhattan

Friday, March 11

Queens, N.Y. (Jack Kaiser Stadium)

12 p.m.

St. John's University

1-12

Manhattan

5-7

Manhattan

St. John's

St. John’s Splits Friday Doubleheader with Manhattan

3/11/2022 6:35:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Game One Box Score (PDF)Game Two Box Score (PDF)Photo Gallery Photo Gallery 2

Red Storm takes game two behind strong pitching from Johnson and Sanzio

QUEENS, N.Y. (March 11, 2022) – After watching a late lead slip away in game one of Friday's doubleheader, the St. John's baseball team held off another Manhattan push in game two to split the twin-bill and set up a Sunday rubber match between the Johnnies and Jaspers.

            Game One

            St. John's led 6-2 after five innings before nine unanswered Manhattan runs gave the Jaspers an 11-6 victory in game one.

          Tate Ballestero went 2-for-3 with two doubles and a sac fly, his third multi-hit game in the team's last five outings.

            David Glancy singled twice and drove in a season-high three runs while first-year Johnnies Luke Orbon and Jayson Kramer also logged two singles apiece.

            The middle-infield tandem of Chris Conniff and Kevin Michaels both singled and scored a run.

            Jackson Tucker walked three times and scored two runs, both of which were the result of some heads-up baserunning.

            St. John's jumped ahead in the bottom of the first, as Tucker walked, stole second and took advantage of a mental lapse by the Manhattan first baseman, who did not come home quick enough on a Glancy groundout. The next three Johnnies reached base to load the bags with one out, but the Red Storm could not push across any additional runs

            After both teams went scoreless in the second, Manhattan jumped in front in the top of the third, stringing together four hits for a pair of runs to take a 2-1 lead.

            The Johnnies loaded the bases again with one out in the home half of the frame, but again could not score.

            St. John's left the bases loaded for a third time in the bottom of the fourth, but not before Ballestero knocked in the tying run with a sac fly to left.

            Ian Murphy, who allowed just two runs in 5.0 innings of work, maneuvered around a pair of Jasper hits in the top of the fifth before the Red Storm broken open the game in the home half of the inning. Following singles from Kramer and Michaels earlier in the inning, Tucker drew a walk to load the bases with two outs. Glancy smacked a ball into shallow center that glanced off the glove of the diving center field, Harrison Treble, and allowed all three runs to score. Jermaine White entered as a pinch runner for Glancy and came around to score later in the inning. After advancing to second on a Ballestero hit-by-pitch, White broke for third on a wild pitch and came home when the throw skidded into shallow left, giving the Red Storm a 6-2 edge.

            Manhattan trimmed its deficit to three, 6-3, in the sixth, as Jack Lynch led off with a double before coming around to score on a Trevor Santos RBI groundout.

            St. John's went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the sixth before the Jaspers knotted the contest at six aside with three runs in the top of the seventh. Frankie Marinelli singled down the left field line and David Bermudez walked to put runners on first and second with one out for Treble, who doubled to left to bring home Marinelli and give the Jaspers two runners in scoring position. Matt Padre stepped to the dish and brought them both in with a single up the middle, forcing a bottom of the seventh.

            The Johnnies went three-up, three-down in the seventh before the Jaspers scored five in the top of the eighth, extending their streak of unanswered runs to nine.

            Game Two

            Freshman right-hander Dylan Johnson moved to 2-0 on the season in his first collegiate start, tossing 5.0 innings of one-run ball in a 2-1 win over Manhattan in the second game of Friday's doubleheader. The Selden, N.Y., native scattered five hits and three walks over his 5.0 frames, striking out four in the process.

            Sophomore Chuck Sanzio relieved Johnson and allowed just one base runner in 2.0 no-hit innings for his first collegiate save.

            Tucker drove in both of the game's runs with a two-RBI base knock.

            Johnson faced his first real trouble in the top of the third, as the first three batters of the inning reached to load the bases with no outs. Manhattan second baseman Dolan Ocasal stepped to the plate and lined a ball to second, where Max Shabestari caught it and stepped on the bag for a quick twin-killing.   Shabestari also recorded the inning's final out on a ground ball in the following at-bat.

            The Red Storm broke the scoreless deadlock in the bottom of the fourth. After a single and two walks to load the bases with two outs, Tucker ripped a two-run base knock into left, putting the Johnnies ahead 2-0 heading into the fifth.

            In the top of the sixth, Bermudez led off with a solo homer before Treble doubled to right to put the tying run 180 feet from home. After the two-bagger, Sanzio entered and retired the next three batters to preserve the St. John's lead.

            St. John's went down in order in the bottom of the sixth before Marinelli walked and stole second to put the tying run in scoring position. Ocasal then hit a groundout to the left side, which put Marinelli in a rundown and ended the game.

            The Red Storm and Jaspers will play a Sunday rubber match in Queens at 1 p.m. An audio broadcast of the game will be available on RedStormSports.com.