by Troy Mauriello
The St. John’s Red Storm showed that they can win games in a number of ways with a sweep of a doubleheader over Maine Saturday in Queens.
St. John’s home opener saw Red Storm starter Sean Mooney toss the program’s first complete game since 2015. The Johnnies used that effort to cruise to a 3-0 victory.
“Pretty much all four pitches were working,” Mooney said on his afternoon. “Fastball on both sides was working, changeup down in the zone was working, curveball to my glove side was really moving and cutting, said the hurler.
Mooney was masterful on the afternoon, allowing just four hits in nine innings of work. Although he struck out only three, Mooney did not walk a batter and threw just 99 pitches. He was frequently ahead in the count and pitched to contact, which ended up working in his favor.
“He moves the ball around, he knows what he can do, he lets the hitters get themselves out,” Manager Ed Blankmeyer said. “He did a nice job, did a real nice job.”
Mooney, who’s ERA lowered to a minimal 0.68 with the win, ran into trouble just once in nine innings. In the top half of the sixth Maine struck with two of its four hits on the afternoon, however Mooney wiggled out of a two-on-one-out jam by getting two straight fly outs to end the inning.
Early on it appeared that the Red Storm offense might leave its starter hanging, however St. John’s broke through in the fifth.
After Jamie Galazin was hit by a pitch with two out, John Valente extended his hit streak to 30 with a single that sent Galazin to third. A wild pitch to the next batter saw St. John’s scratch across its first run of the game.
The Red Storm extended its lead with two more in the seventh. A Robbie Knightes sacrifice fly scored pinch runner Mike Antico, and a two-out single from Michael Donadio knocked in Galazin to complete the game’s scoring.
The win was the Red Storm’s fourth in a row, and it was their first win this season when scoring less than four runs.
The story in game two of Saturday’s doubleheader was a bit different. After being shutout in game one, Maine pushed across a run just three batters into the game off St. John’s starter Jeff Belge.
The Black Bears ended up scoring two in the first, and they tacked on a third run in the second when Brandon Vicens narrowly scored on a play at the plate after a sacrifice fly.
St. John’s was able to get one back in their half of the second, but the score remained 3-1 until the bottom of the fifth.
That inning proved to be the difference in the game, as the Red Storm knocked in seven runs on just three hits to take a commanding 8-3 lead. The inning began with St. John’s loading the bases despite not hitting the ball out of the infield, thanks to a pair of hit batters and an infield single.
Two straight bases loaded walks to Anthony Brocato and Jordan Gillerman tied the game, and a bloop single from Robert Boselli III gave St. John’s a 4-3 lead.
Then, after a pitching change, Galazin tripled down the left field line to clear the loaded bases and give the Johnnies a 7-3 advantage. The inning’s scoring was capped off after a sacrifice fly from John Valente made it 8-3.
St. John’s eventually tacked on one more run to close out a 9-3 victory.
Belge was able to find his form through six innings of work through the afternoon. He was knocked around for three runs and four hits in his first two innings, but responded with four innings of one-hit ball.
“First two innings he kind of had the ball up, didn’t have a feel of where the ball was going,” Blankmeyer said. “Then he got his sea legs in the third, he pitched out of a jam or two. He kept us in the ballgame so we could put up a big number after that.”
Following Belge, Joe Kelly worked three scoreless innings to close out the doubleheader sweep for St. John’s.
“Joe Kelly was outstanding too, he got nine straight outs, that’s not too bad,” Blankmeyer said.
If nothing else, Saturday’s doubleheader proved that the Red Storm can win games in a wide variety of ways. Be it scoring just three runs and letting your starting pitcher carry the workload, or exploding for seven runs in one inning, St. John’s has had no trouble patching together wins so far this season.
“It’s a team effort, “ Blankmeyer said. “Bottom line is you gotta win the game, you gotta find a way to win the game, each game is gonna present a different scenario.”
With the victories, the Red Storm are now 17-2 on the season.
