Matthew Wolfson
Assistant Sports Editor
The St. John’s men’s baseball team has hit a rough patch, losing to Columbia yesterday 5-3, turning a couple of bad games into a losing streak.
The Columbia pitching shut down the Red Storm batters, letting up zero earned runs between the six hurlers. The three-run third inning for St. John’s came after an error by Columbia first baseman Alex Black.
But the 3-1 lead was quickly erased, as Columbia added a run in the bottom of the third, and then put up two more on small ball in the fourth.
Taking advantage of a walk and a hit batsman to load the bases, a wild pitch from Joey Christopher brought in the leading run. Christopher was given the loss.
Six of the seven St. John’s (13-19) hits were singles, as the power was clearly absent for the Red Storm bats.
Although Black committed a the third inning error for Columbia (14-15), he made up for it by going 2-for-3 with an RBI and came in to pitch the ninth inning, earning the save for the Lions.
Zach Tax came in for two innings of relief and got the win for Columbia, letting up just an unearned run.
After grabbing an unearned insurance run off Christopher in the sixth inning, both teams were done scoring.
The Red Storm threatened again in the eighth, as first baseman Frank Schwindel and right fielder Zach Lauricella hit a pair of singles to left field with one out, brining the tying run to the plate. Designated hitter Danny Bethea ended the inning, hitting into a double play.
Again, the Johnnies fought, sending the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning after pinch hitter Jimmy Brennan kept the game alive with a two-out single. Despite their fight, St. John’s outfielder Martin Kelly was struck out swinging by Black to end the game.
Before the two losses to Connecticut and this loss to Columbia, St. John’s had won six of their last eight games.
St. John’s will look to turn things around against Hofstra at 3 p.m. on April 10 at Jack Kaiser Stadium.
LOMANGINO EARNS PLACE ON BIG EAST WEEKLY HONOR ROLL
Red-shirt junior James Lomangino has been selected to this week’s Big East Weekly Honor Roll after earning his first victory against Connecticut on April 5th. Lomangino hurled seven shut out innings striking out seven batters in the Johnnies’ 3-0 victory over the Huskies.
