St. John’s Travels to ECU for Battle at the Max

Friday, February 27

Greenville, N.C. (Max R. Joyner Family Stadium)

12:30 p.m.

St. John's University

Campbell

2/26/2026 3:40:00 PM | Softball

Watch Link (ECU)Live Stats (Campbell)Live Stats (ECU)Live Stats (Rider)Game Notes 4 Battle at the Max Record Book (PDF)

The Red Storm continues its 2026 campaign in North Carolina

QUEENS, N.Y. — The St. John's softball team will continue its 2026 campaign this weekend at the Battle at the Max hosted by ECU. The Red Storm will play five games from Feb. 27-March 1 at Max R. Joyner Family Stadium in Greenville, N.C.

St. John's is set to face Campbell and East Carolina twice, before taking on Rider to cap off the weekend in the Tar Heel State. Live stats for all five contests will be available on redstormsports.com, and matchups against the Pirates will be available to watch on ecupirates.com.

The Johnnies (12-3, 0-0 BIG EAST) enter the weekend following a 3-2 showing at the Stetson Invitational in DeLand, Fla., posting three wins over Columbia while scoring 23 runs across the five-game slate.

St. John's claimed two major BIG EAST weekly awards on Feb. 23 as Jess Bianco was named Player of the Week and Loreley Francia earned Pitcher of the Week honors. The placements marked the Red Storm's third straight week receiving conference recognition.

Bianco hit .421 with six runs scored, two RBIs and three stolen bases at the Stetson Invitational. The Cherry Hill, N.J., native added onto her program record 101 career stolen bases, which is the third most among active NCAA Division I players. Through Feb. 22, Bianco leads the Red Storm with 26 hits, a .491 batting average and is tied for the team lead in runs scored with 11.

Francia went 2-0 with a 1.40 era in the Sunshine State, allowing just three earned runs over 15 innings with 13 strikeouts and a complete-game shutout in a 3-0 victory over Columbia on Feb. 20. The right-handed seniors' title of Pitcher of the Week was the sixth of her career and first of the 2026 season.

In the circle, the Red Storm pitching staff continues to rank among the nation's most productive units. Headlined by Francia and Ana Serafinko, St. John's sits 14^th in NCAA Division I in strikeouts per seven innings at 7.87 and is tied for 22^nd nationally with three shutouts overall.

The Johnnies are also 11-0 in neutral-site contests, which ranks third nationally among Division I programs.

Campbell enters the weekend at 9-5 after a strong offensive month that included 51 runs over a five-game span at the season-opening Campbell Stampede and a 13-5, sixth-inning run-rule win over Radford on Feb. 22. St. John's trails the all-time series 2-4, with the Red Storm claiming a 4-3 neutral-site win in the most recent meeting on Feb. 16, 2019, in Columbia, S.C.

ECU arrives at 10-7 following a 5-4 road victory at No. 18/23 Duke on Feb. 24, the program's first-ever win in Durham. St. John's trails the all-time series, 4-5, but won the last matchup, a 9-1 victory on Feb. 10, 2018, in Miami.

Rider enters the Battle at the Max at 3-5 after early season wins over Central Connecticut and North Carolina Central. The Johnnies trail the all-time series, 7-11, and claimed the previous meeting, 8-0, in five innings on Feb. 28, 2025 in Kennesaw, Ga.

Following its time in North Carolina, St. John's is slated to host Wagner on March 4 at 2 p.m. for the first contest at Red Storm Field of the 2026 season.