It was a battle of attrition as St. John’s (24-12, 8-5) battled Georgetown (19-19, 2-11) and the cold till the very last inning pulling off the walk-off win in the series opener against Georgetown.
The turning point in the game came in the bottom of the eighth inning when the Red Storm rallied with two outs. Hopkins singled to left, and O’Hare was hit with a pitch, which set up for a 3-run home run from Wessinger, tying the game at 7.
Daniel Burawa sat the Hoyas down in the top of the ninth inning which led up to the game-ending heroics for the Red Storm.
Brennan started the inning with a single to right field. A sacrifice bunt from Ferrara moved Brennan into scoring position. Jimmy Parque who was 0-for-3 up until this point, laced a bullet single to center field that plated Brennan for the walk-off 8-7 win for the Red Storm.
Georgetown took an early 2-0 lead in the first inning off of the Red Storm starter Bruce Kern (5-3) who hit Tommy Lee to lead off the game. Lee came in to score on an RBI single by Billy Cupelo, Dan Capeless followed with an RBI double.
The Hoyas added another run, taking a 3-0 lead in the third inning on a sacrifice fly from Capeless.
Jimmy Brennan led off with a double to start the bottom of the third inning and came in to score on Scott Ferrara’s RBI single.
The Red Storm started a two-run fourth inning with three-straight singles. Jeremy Baltz lined a single up the middle and quickly stole second base. Greg Hopkins followed with a single scoring Baltz. Another single by Sean O’Hare put runners at the corners for Matt Wessinger who tied the game at three on a sacrifice fly.
The game would not be tied for long as the Hoyas re took the lead in the fifth due to sloppy play by the Red Storm. Chip Malt singled and was able to move to third on a wild throw on a short infield hopper from Lee. Lee promptly stole his third base of the evening followed by a bloop single by Cupelo that scored two, putting the Hoyas ahead 5-3.
Dan Godefroi gave Georgetown the 6-3 lead with an RBI single in the sixth, which ended the night for Kern, who pitched six innings giving up eight hits, five earned runs, and struck out four.
The Red Storm made it 6-4 as Baltz sent a ball over the right field wall for his ninth home run of the season to start the bottom half of the sixth inning.
