David Glancy absolutely crushed a go-ahead 2-R HR to give St. John’s a 3-1 lead in the fifth pic.twitter.com/pPDDnOayo9
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) February 28, 2021
To say that losing seasons are uncharted territory for St. John’s University would bean understatement. The Johnnies, who are arguably the best baseball program in the entire northeast, finished 2021 with a losing record at 19-21. It was their first sub .500 season since 2013 and before that you have to go back half a century. What Ed Blankmeyer, Joe Russo and Jack Kaiser were able to do for that program is truly impressive. With Blankmeyer moving on to coach in the professional ranks with the Brooklyn Cyclones, his longtime assistant and recruiting coordinator, Mike Hampton, took over at the helm.
The last two years have been anything but normal for everyone – but especially college baseball. They played a 13 game abbreviated season in 2020 and a 40-game season with limited travel in 2021. Both seasons were impacted by the pandemic and last year featured a lengthy pause for the program due to covid and when they did play, they were hampered by injuries.
Coach Mike Hampton does not want to feed into the excuses though.
“You can make all the excuses you want but ultimately we did not win enough baseball games,” said the skipper.
Of their top performers, LHP Nick Mondak was atop the list. The southpaw was outstanding, Hampton said “he was great – he was with us for a long time. He was a really good Friday night starter. The second game of his freshman season he blew out his elbow and he missed two years after that. But he was always solid and was an awesome kid, a hard worker. He earned everything that he got.” Mondak compiled a 1.92 ERA over 65.2 IP and struck out 74 batters. The fact that his record was 4-3 spoke to the struggles of their offense. He was drafted by the Angels in the 18th round. Naturally, they will have to replace him atop the rotation.
Their other standout was closer Ethan Routzahn. The flame throwing closer was outstanding – he led the team with a 1.19 ERA and .93 WHIP over 22.2 IP. He saved six games for the Johnnies. Hampton noted one of the team’s struggles was getting him the ball with a lead. He stated that they blew several leads in the 7th and 8th innings – games he would’ve likely locked up had he gotten the chance. He was signed by the San Diego Padres as an undrafted free agent and rocketed all the way up to Triple-A by the end of the season. He will be another tough player to replace.
As previously mentioned, they dealt with an inordinate amount of injuries.
Their goal this off-season was simple – “look for higher talent level and winning players.” Hampton noted that it was tough for them that their 2020 freshman lost their season and the summer season for development and basically came back last year as freshmen. Their most impactful hitter was redshirt freshmen David Glancy – who absolutely tore the cover off the ball early in 2020 – suffered a shoulder injury and is still regaining his strength but they are hopeful he will be back to full strength by the spring. They also lost ace Brian Hendry to Tommy John so he will be out for the season as he rehabs his elbow. RHP Ian Murphy also had surgery to remove bone chips, but he’s expected back for the spring. Another pitcher that suffered injury was Brandon Backman, so they were snakebitten.
“It’s going to be good to get those guys back – we have a bunch of new guys. We have 16 new guys so that’s why we are playing these games,” he stated.
They also got a transfer catcher from Virginia and he said a “few JuCo guys.” One of those JuCo transfers was Jason Diaz from Monroe who is a 2019 graduate of Kellenberg.
Diaz spotting a fastball on the corner pic.twitter.com/2RSWtfFwiM
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) October 22, 2021
Among the freshmen crop, he singled out outfielder Jackson Tucker from Staten Island, who was ranked as the 3rd OF in NY by Perfect Game. He also mentioned RHP Xavier Kohlhosser, a hard-thrower from Wappinger Falls, NY.
Among the Long Island players, he singled out Joe Durso, Luke Orbon and Dylan Johnson. Regarding Johnson he said, “Dylan has been outstanding. He pitched against Boston College last week. He’s a special kid, he throws some funk and he’s a competitor. The tougher the situation, the more he steps up.” Johnson was the recipient of the Carl Yastrzemski Award following his incredible 2021 season for Newfield in which he led the Wolverines to their first county championship and LIC in program history.
Conference III MVP Dylan Johnson pic.twitter.com/gjdGfzXxOw
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) June 21, 2021
They also have a few other Long Island natives – OFs Paul Orbon, Carlos Hidalgo and Tim McHugh. Brian Morrell transferred to Hofstra University and Jake Lazzaro transferred to Liberty University.
The Johnnies will enter 2022 with a chip on their shoulder, coming off an uncharacteristic poor season. They will open up the season on the road at UNC-Wilmington before heading to Middle Tennessee State and then San Francisco where they will also face Oregon.
