The St. John’s University men’s baseball team’s impressive six-game winning streak was cut short by the Hofstra Pride in a 7-6 loss on April 15 — a game they dominated for the majority of the way.
The contest seemed strongly one-sided through seven innings, even though the Pride quickly jumped out to a 1-0 lead after a leadoff triple by Dylan Palmer, who was later driven in by a forceout to shortstop.
The Red Storm didn’t answer back until the second inning, when they scored off a bunt from leadoff hitter Jackson Tucker that resulted in an errored throw from Hofstra starter Branden Brown, allowing a run to come across.
The Red Storm offense picked up again over the next two innings, plating four more runs — with Jared Beebe starting the rally off with a double. Will Cowan later drove Beebe in with another double, followed by a Jace Jeremiah walk that brought in another run.
Jon LeGrande continued to deliver with runners in scoring position, driving in two more runs with a single to put the game at 5-1.
Through the early innings, the Pride made one thing clear: the lineup struggled to advance runners in scoring position and pitch from the stretch with traffic on the bases.
St. John’s starter Chris Batuyios worked around trouble for most of his outing, tossing four innings while allowing four hits and one run in the first.
The game stayed that way until the top of the eighth, when the Red Storm ran through three different relievers in an attempt to escape a nightmare inning.
Sophomore Jacob Ruiz started the frame by allowing a single and a walk — both runners later driven in by a Luke Masiuk double to make it 5-3.
With the game now past the 2-hour, 30-minute mark, the Red Storm bullpen unraveled. Senior Sam Mettert stepped in and walked three batters while allowing two runs — the tying run coming off a sac fly from Jake Harring.
St. John’s tried to end the inning by bringing in sophomore Chad Falcon, but he gave up a two-run single to Michael Craig. Both runs were charged to Mettert, giving Hofstra a 7-5 lead.
In the bottom half, the Red Storm tried their best to claw back.
LeGrande delivered his second hit of the day, a triple into the right-center gap and was driven in by a Tucker sac fly to make it 7-6.
Trying to end things in dramatic fashion; Beebe led off the ninth with a double that might’ve left Kaiser Stadium if it weren’t so windy, smashing off the wall. But the Red Storm couldn’t bring the tying run in, stranding Beebe at third with two outs.
St. John’s will be back in action this weekend as they travel to Charles Schwab Field to take on the Creighton Bluejays in their third Big East series of the year. The Red Storm head in with a conference-best 6-0 record.
