St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
1-11
University of San Francisco
9-4
Late Runs Lift San Francisco over St. John’s, 10-5, in Series Finale
3/6/2022 8:12:00 PM | Baseball
Cirelli and Orbon each launched a home run on Sunday
Nick Cirelli and Luke Orbon both hit home runs for the Johnnies (1-11), a three-run and solo shot, respectively. This marked the first game of the 2022 campaign in which multiple Red Storm batters hit a home run in the same contest.
Tate Ballestero notched his third RBI of the series with a double. The Morristown, N.J., native added a walk and a run scored to cap off a solid day at the plate.
David Glancy and Jayson Kramer each scored a run on a walk. Glancy tallied a run in three of the four games against USF (9-4).
On the mound, Joe Joe Rodriguez posted a new single-game high in strikeouts with nine punchouts in a career-high 5.2 innings of relief.
Cirelli got the Johnnies off to a hot start at the plate in the opening inning. The redshirt junior stepped to the dish with two runners on and clubbed a three-run home run to right field to give the Red Storm an early 3-0 lead. This marked the third game of the series St. John's has scored at least one run in the first frame.
San Francisco answered with a flurry of its own in the home half of the first. The Dons singled in four consecutive at-bats to plate three runs and knot the series finale at three runs apiece.
USF grabbed its first lead of the day in the bottom of the second courtesy of two RBI groundouts from Mario Demera and Luke Keaschall. After two innings, the home team led 5-3.
The Johnnies cut the lead in half in the top of third with a Ballestero double, his third extra-base hit of the series, that brought Kramer home. The Dons, however, quickly restored their two-run advantage in the last of the third with an RBI single from Darius Foster. After three hotly contested innings, the Dons held a 6-4 lead over the Red Storm.
Orbon slugged his second solo shot of the four-game set in the top of the fourth to cut the San Francisco lead to one for the second time, 6-5.
Both bullpens locked up opposing hitters and kept the game at 6-5 through the seventh inning, but the Dons tacked on four runs in the bottom of the eighth to expand the advantage to 10-5.
USF righthander Josh Molllerus worked around a base hit from Colin Wetterau to retire the Johnnies in the top of the ninth and secure the series sweep for San Francisco.
St. John's will return to Queens for its home opener against the Hofstra Pride on Wednesday, March 9. First pitch from Jack Kaiser Stadium is slated for 3 p.m.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: SHEW, Adam (2-0)
L: Bianchi, Vincent (0-2)
Batting:
2B: Ballestero, Tate 1
HR: Cirelli, Nick 1 ; Orbon, Luke 1
RBI: Ballestero, Tate 1 ; Cirelli, Nick 3 ; Orbon, Luke 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Glancy, David 1 ; Kramer, Jayson 1 ; Ballestero, Tate 1 ; Cirelli, Nick 1 ; Orbon, Luke 1
Batting:
2B: DEMERA, Mario 1 ; WILLIAMS III, Harris 1 ; STAPLETON, Christian 1
RBI: DEMERA, Mario 2 ; KEASCHALL, Luke 2 ; WILLIAMS III, Harris 1 ; GREIM, Brandon 1 ; GIOSSO, Gabe 2 ; FOSTER, Darius 1
Base Running:
RUNS: VUJOVICH, Jordan 2 ; MARTINEZ, Tyler 1 ; DEMERA, Mario 1 ; KEASCHALL, Luke 1 ; WILLIAMS III, Harris 2 ; GREIM, Brandon 1 ; STAPLETON, Christian 1 ; FOSTER, Darius 1
SB: WILLIAMS III, Harris 1 ; GREIM, Brandon 1 ; FOSTER, Darius 5
HBP: KEASCHALL, Luke 1 ; GREIM, Brandon 1 ; GIOSSO, Gabe 1 ; CAMPAGNA, Michael 1 ; FOSTER, Darius 1
