2008 Woodie Awards
Baseball wins two of three over SHU
Matt Choquette, Staff Writer
Issue date: 4/2/08Section: Sports
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St. John's who had not lost since March 8, has recently received votes in the Collegiate Baseball Poll and is currently ranked No. 22.
Head Coach Ed Blankmeyer noticed a slight difference between the team's play on Sunday and the previous 12 games.
"The past few weeks, everything has been working very well for us," he said. "We missed some chances on the bases today and had a couple bad breaks defensively. Seton Hall is a good all-around team, got to give them a lot of credit."
The Johnnies stranded seven runners in scoring position, which was uncharacteristic of St. John's, who scores 7.2 runs per game.
Red Storm right fielder Chris Anninos finished Sunday 3-for-4, with a run scored in the third off on Greg Hopkins' single, which tyed the game at one. Hopkins finished 2-for-5 and extended his hitting streak to 12 games.
St. John's took the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning after Gino Matias walked, advanced on a passed ball, and scored on a Seton Hall throwing error. The fourth inning threat was not over, as Anninos was intentionally walked and Paul Karmas came to the plate with the bases loaded and one out. Walking Anninos proved to be a wise choice when Karmas grounded into an inning-ending double-play.
"That could have been the turning-point," said Blankmeyer. "It had the looks of a big inning, but they pitched out of it beautifully."
St. John's sophomore, Miguel Valcarcel, left his season debut as a starter with one out in the fifth inning after giving up four hits and one run. Reliever Michael Aicardi defused a first-and-third, one-out situation by retiring the next two Pirate batters. However, he would find himself in tight jams in the following innings.
After surrendering a single and two walks to load the bases in the sixth, Aicardi gave up a two-run single, giving Seton Hall pitching all the run support it
would need.
In the seventh, Aicardo walked one batter and struck out two, before giving up a two-out home run over the leftfield wall to Pirates' Chris Affinito, his second round-tripper in as many games.
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