St. John's University Athletics
Wednesday, March 9
Queens, N.Y. (Jack Kaiser Stadium)
3 p.m.
St. John's University
vs
Hofstra
St. John’s to Host Hofstra for Wednesday Home Opener
3/8/2022 3:23:00 PM | Baseball
Johnnies and Pride to meet at 3 p.m. on ESPN3
QUEENS, N.Y. – The St. John's baseball team will make its 2022 debut in Queens on Wednesday afternoon when it plays host to the Hofstra Pride. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. on ESPN3 with Joe Vasile and Austin Rooney on the call.
The Red Storm will play its first game of the season in the Five Boroughs after dropping 11 of 12 games to open the season. The Johnnies grabbed a win against Middle Tennessee State on opening weekend before dropping 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 Wednesday will kick off a 13-game homestand.
Two Johnnies enter Wednesday's game 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.
Right-hander Brandon Backman is set to make his first appearance since 2020 on Wednesday afternoon. The Danbury, Conn., native missed all of last season and the first three weekends of this season with an injury. In 2020, Backman made four appearances, going 1-0 with a 5.87 ERA. He fanned 12 batters and surrendered only four walks in 7.2 innings of work and held the opposition to a .222 batting average. Before coming to St. John's, he was named to the JUCO World Series All-Tournament Team in 2019 after throwing a complete game in his one appearance at the tournament with Monroe Community College.
Hofstra sports a record of 4-3 heading into its midweek opener against Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon. The Pride has won three of its last four contests, sweeping a pair of games from Saint Peter's and splitting with LIU this past week in Hempstead.
The Pride is in its first season under the direction of former big leaguer Frank Catalanotto, who led NYIT to a Division II World Series before taking over at Hofstra. One of Catalanotto's assistants is Matt Wessinger, the Red Storm's all-time hits leader who helped lead the Johnnies to 42 wins as a volunteer assistant coach in 2017. As a senior, Wessinger led the Red Storm to a berth in the Super Regionals before going in the fifth round to the Colorado Rockies.
Hofstra is led offensively by St. John's transfer Brian Morrell, who hit .458 over the Pride's first seven games and was recently named the CAA Player of the Week. A Long Island native, Morrell started his career at Notre Dame before hitting .268 in 25 games for the Johnnies across two seasons.
St. John's is 62-11 against Hofstra dating back to 1956, including a 30-4 record in Queens.
The teams were scheduled to play a four-game set in 2020, but the series was canceled due to COVID issues.
The Red Storm and the Pride last met in 2019, as the Johnnies swept a doubleheader by the combined score of 18-1 at Jack Kaiser Stadium.
The Red Storm will play its first game of the season in the Five Boroughs after dropping 11 of 12 games to open the season. The Johnnies grabbed a win against Middle Tennessee State on opening weekend before dropping 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 Wednesday will kick off a 13-game homestand.
Two Johnnies enter Wednesday's game 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.
Right-hander Brandon Backman is set to make his first appearance since 2020 on Wednesday afternoon. The Danbury, Conn., native missed all of last season and the first three weekends of this season with an injury. In 2020, Backman made four appearances, going 1-0 with a 5.87 ERA. He fanned 12 batters and surrendered only four walks in 7.2 innings of work and held the opposition to a .222 batting average. Before coming to St. John's, he was named to the JUCO World Series All-Tournament Team in 2019 after throwing a complete game in his one appearance at the tournament with Monroe Community College.
Hofstra sports a record of 4-3 heading into its midweek opener against Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon. The Pride has won three of its last four contests, sweeping a pair of games from Saint Peter's and splitting with LIU this past week in Hempstead.
The Pride is in its first season under the direction of former big leaguer Frank Catalanotto, who led NYIT to a Division II World Series before taking over at Hofstra. One of Catalanotto's assistants is Matt Wessinger, the Red Storm's all-time hits leader who helped lead the Johnnies to 42 wins as a volunteer assistant coach in 2017. As a senior, Wessinger led the Red Storm to a berth in the Super Regionals before going in the fifth round to the Colorado Rockies.
Hofstra is led offensively by St. John's transfer Brian Morrell, who hit .458 over the Pride's first seven games and was recently named the CAA Player of the Week. A Long Island native, Morrell started his career at Notre Dame before hitting .268 in 25 games for the Johnnies across two seasons.
St. John's is 62-11 against Hofstra dating back to 1956, including a 30-4 record in Queens.
The teams were scheduled to play a four-game set in 2020, but the series was canceled due to COVID issues.
The Red Storm and the Pride last met in 2019, as the Johnnies swept a doubleheader by the combined score of 18-1 at Jack Kaiser Stadium.
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