St. John’s to Celebrate Senior Day Against FDU on Tuesday

Tuesday, May 7

Queens, N.Y. (Kaiser Stadium)

6 p.m.

St. John's University

FDU

St. John’s to Celebrate Senior Day Against FDU on Tuesday

5/6/2024 4:50:00 PM | Baseball

Live Stats Watch (ESPN+)Game Notes

Red Storm enters Tuesday’s contest on a six-game winning streak

QUEENS, N.Y. – Winners of six-straight games, the St. John's baseball team will look to remain hot as it celebrates the outgoing class of 2024 on Senior Day when FDU comes to Queens for a 6 p.m. showdown on Tuesday.

ESPN+ will carry the midweek matchup and live stats will be available on RedStormSports.com.

The Johnnies secured their 20th victory at Jack Kaiser Stadium with a sweep of Creighton over the weekend. With a win on Tuesday, the 2024 squad will become just the sixth team since the stadium was opened in 2001 to reach the 21-win threshold in Queens. The previous five teams to secure 21 or more wins all came after the ballpark was renamed in honor of the late Jack Kaiser in 2007.

The Red Storm secured a three-game series victory over the Bluejays for the first time since 2018, thanks to BIG EAST Pitcher of the Week Mario Pesca and honor roll selection Evan Chaffee.

The duo combined to allow just three hits across 12.1 innings of work for the Red Storm. The Johnnies' starting pitchers also struck out 15 batters en route to a pair of wins on Saturday afternoon. Both hurlers jumped out to fast starts as Pesca retired 10 straight batters to open the series finale while Chaffee struck out the first four batters he saw in game one.

After three wins over the Bluejays (60), St. John's has earned seven triumphs against teams with an RPI of 60 or better this season, including its highest-ranked regular season win over then No. 2 Florida (23), a pair of victories over Xavier (29) and one triumph over UConn (43). St. John's enters Tuesday's contest ranked No. 44 in RPI.

The Red Storm is currently slashing .323/.439/.505 as a team at home, averaging 9.1 runs on 10.6 hits per game in Queens. St. John's pitching staff has also posted a 3.53 ERA and held the opposition to a .237 batting average against.

Catcher Jimmy Keenan has been on a tear behind the plate, throwing out a league-best 22 runners trying to steal. His 22 successful caught stealing attempts are the most by a Johnnie in the last 20 seasons, surpassing the previous high mark of 21 set by Tyler Sanchez in 2014. The White Plains, N.Y., native has also induced the most caught stealings among BIG EAST schools since Villanova's Doug deMarrais posted 22 in 2018.

The Red Storm catcher will have his hands full with one of the nation's top stealing teams when FDU comes to The Jack. The Knights, who enter Tuesday having won three straight games, are fifth in the nation with 127 stolen bases, seeing Justin Sierra pace the squad with 33 (4th in NCAA). Hunter D'Amato also found himself among the country's best stealers with 21 swipes of his own, good for 44th.

FDU outscored Norfolk State, 49-10, in its three-game sweep over the weekend. In Saturday's 28-5 triumph, the Knights scored half of its runs in the eighth inning alone and seven different players drove in at least two runs. Brian Sanders drove in a game-best six tallies while going 5-for-7 at the dish.

The FDU pitching staff is averaging an NEC-best 9.4 strikeouts per game while ranking third with a 6.26 ERA.

Following Tuesday's matchup, St. John's will head to Seton Hall beginning on Friday in hopes of clinching its spot in the 2024 BIG EAST Tournament. The Red Storm needs just one win in the weekend series to punch its ticket to Prasco Park in Mason, Ohio for the postseason slate on May 22-25.