The St. John’s Baseball team played their first home series of the season against the NJIT Highlanders, claiming two of the three games. The Red Storm entered the series coming off a rough away stretch, winning only one game of their last 10. NJIT entered the game off a successful home series, winning three of their last four games.
Game one of the series would go in favor of the Highlanders in an 18-5 blowout.
Redshirt sophomore pitcher Evan Chaffee took the mound for the Johnnies, making his fourth start of the season. Junior pitcher Holden deJong made his fourth start of the season for NJIT, after back-to-back wins against Sam Houston State and Iona.
St. John’s pitching would struggle in game one, allowing 11 walks, 12 hits and six hit batters. These struggles would be amplified in the fifth inning. The Highlander offense scored 11 runs on five hits. Four pitchers combined to end the nightmare inning, two of which failed to record outs.
Sophomore infielder Jayder Raifstanger and senior Luke Orbon were bright spots in a dark afternoon for the Johnnies. Raifstanger recorded two RBIs on three hits, including a home run and a double. Orbon had a similar performance, hitting a solo homer and an RBI single.
Game two would tell the opposite story, and the Red Storm responded to the blowout loss with a sizable win of their own.
Led by a strong six-inning outing from freshman David Rodriguez, St. John’s would power to an 11-3 win to even up the series. Junior left-handed pitcher Louis Marinaro followed up the dominant performance with a quick two innings of his own.
Marinaro would also make history for himself, punching graduate catcher Mason Wolf out for his 100th career strikeout.
The Red Storm’s offense was led by a three-RBI game from infielder Jared Beebe, who would bring in three runs on a triple down the left-field line in the bottom of the eighth inning. St. John’s produced two big innings, scoring four runs in the fifth and five runs in the eighth.
The Johnnies would secure the third and final game of the series in a 15-run thriller, winning 8-7. NJIT would take an early lead, scoring two runs in the first and second innings. Freshman pitcher Victor Frederick started the game, pitching four and two-thirds innings.
Graduate student Andrew Eppinger would bring in the first run on a two-out single for the Highlanders. The second NJIT run would come from sophomore Jack Stead reaching on a fielder’s choice.
St. John’s would come back to take the lead in the fourth on a two-RBI single from Jon LeGrande. They would later extend the advantage to three with Shaun McMillan’s two-run homer, the third of his college career.
The Highlanders would take the lead late in the game with a four-run eighth inning.
Three doubles from Andrew Eppinger, Austin Francis and Jack Stead would bring in the runs to give NJIT a 7-5 lead. The Red Storm would find a way to create another comeback in the next half-inning, scoring three runs to take back the lead 8-7.
LeGrande got his third RBI of the night on a single to score Adam Agresti to get within a run. Jackson Tucker would tie the game at seven on a bunt single, scoring Anthony Brienza. St. John’s would eventually grab the go-ahead and winning run when Raifstanger got a base hit past the second baseman Ray Ortiz to score LeGrande for his fourth RBI of the series.
The series win marks the first of the season for St. John’s. They will return to Jack Kaiser Stadium on Mar. 14 for a series against Maine.
