St. John’s baseball
Power Rankings: Week 2
It was an exhilarating weekend of baseball featuring extra-inning victories and even a no-hitter. Most importantly, it featured plenty of winning for the local programs. Without further ado, here is my best effort to rank their performances after two weeks. *Adelphi, Farmingdale, St. Joseph’s, Old Westbury, Nassau and Suffolk CC have not begun yet and were not eligible for ranking this week. Elite: St. John’s (Record: 7-0, Stock EVEN) Not much more you can say about St. John’s that hasn’t been said. They look like a top-10 team in the nation. They have made easy work of teams of all calibers including the University of North Carolina for the second straight year. This weekend, they were in the Penn State Tournament in Cary, N.C. and promptly shut out Monmouth and U...
February 23 Recap
Division-I Fordham: Fordham defeated USF 2-0. Starter Ben Greenberg, relievers Anthony DiMeglio and Alvin Melendez combined to go the distance and allow only one hit and two walks in the shutout. Second baseman Nick Labella had one of the four hits for the Rams on the afternoon. He accounted for both of the Fordham runs, driving one in and scoring one himself. St. John’s: St. John’s stayed red-hot as they blanked Monmouth 3-0 in victory. Starter Sean Mooney pitched six solid innings of no run ball to go along with 11 strikeouts for his second win of the season. The Red Storm pounded out nine hits; Luke Stampfl, Ryan Hogan, John Valente and Josh Shaw each had two hits on the afternoon. The win makes five in a row to start the season for St. John’s. Stony Brook: Stony Brook defeated Iona 5-3...
St. John’s Upsets North Carolina For Second Straight Year
No. 23 St. John’s Red Storm upset No. 6 UNC Tar Heels, 5-2, Wednesday night with a three-run seventh inning. It’s the second straight year St. John’s defeated a top-ten UNC team at Boshamer Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C. The Johnnies improve to 4-0 while the Tar Heels fall to 2-3 this season. St. John’s holds a 0.73 team ERA and have yet to allow two or more earned runs in a game. Both teams were scoreless through the first three innings. The Red Storm got the scoring started in the fourth with junior 2B Josh Shaw reaching on an error to shortstop scoring senior CF Jamie Galazin. St. John’s junior Anthony Brocato hit a sac fly to score SS redshirt-senior Luke Stampfl to take the 2-0 lead. UNC answered back in the bottom half of the fourth. UNC junior OF Dylan En...
February 16 Recap
Friday kicked off the official start of the 2018 college baseball season as most Division-I schools across the coverage got underway. Four teams in our coverage area kicked off their 2018 seasons Friday. They went 3-2 on the day. Division-I: Stony Brook: Stony Brook defeated Nicholls University 6-5 in an exciting back-and-forth game that was aired on ESPN3. Starter Greg Marino went four innings, giving up four runs, one of them earned, and four hits. His two-run error in the fourth briefly gave Nicholls State the 4-3 lead. Third baseman Bobby Honeyman carried the load for the Sea Wolves, going 2-for-4 with one double and three RBI. The RBI double tied the game up at 4-4, before Nick Grande hit a sac fly to give them back the lead. Brandon Alamo smacked a long HR to extend that lead to 6-4,...
Ed Blankmeyer Reflects on Successful 2017
Even by the lofty standards of St. John’s skipper Ed Blankmeyer–758 wins and four Big East tournament crowns–there is much to be excited about when reflecting on the 2017 season of his Red Storm. They burst out of the gate red-hot with their best start since the days of MLB legend John Franco and Frank Viola in 1980. They began the season with nine consecutive wins and were nationally ranked by every major publication from the jump. They wound up with a record of 42-13 and had their dreams cut short in the NCAA Regionals against Vanderbilt and UNC Greensboro. The legendary Head Coach spoke to Vinny Messana and here’s what he had to say… It was an unbelievable season for you. What made this group so special? Well, it came down to getting off to a good start. It...
Nick Schwartz Commits to St. John’s
This weekend was filled with positive experiences for many people down in the WWBA Underclass World Championship in Fort Myers. For Massapequa catcher Nick Schwartz, it was potentially life changing as he gave his verbal commitment to one of the best baseball programs in all of the nation; St. John’s University. They are coming off a 42-13 season in which they made an appearance in the NCAA Regionals. Schwartz spoke with Vinny Messana about his decision and here’s what he had to say… Talk a little about your experience with the college recruiting process and how you wound up committing to St. John’s… The college recruiting process with St. John’s started last year when I went to their mini camp for the first time. After the mini camp, the coaches became ...
With Draft Day Looming, Jesse Berardi Remains Laser Focused
With all the distractions that come along with playing under the the spotlight of Div-I baseball, it would be easy to understand if a player got caught up in the hoopla. Most players are constantly on social media and can allow outside talk to effect their play. Most players are not Jesse Berardi. The St. John’s SS is having a season for the record books. The slick-fielding Commack native has compiled a triple slash line of .385/.497/.519 and is on the draft radar of at least 20 of the 30 Major League teams. Every move from this point on will most likely be recorded by a scout either on video or timed with a stop watch. It will be sent to the regional supervisors and national crosscheckers and Directors of Scouting and possibly, the General Managers. This is not uncharted territory f...
Nine-Run Sixth Powers St. John’s to 21st Win
When you’re hot, you’re hot. The St. John’s Red Storm overpowered the Hofstra Pride, coming away with a 14-3 win for their ninth consecutive victory. “It feels good when you win, it’s nice to see our guys start swinging the bat in the middle of the game.” Head Coach Ed Blankmeyer said after the win. “Another game, another step.” The Red Storm took the lead early on a single from Jesse Berardi scoring Michael Donadio. Later in the game the Johnnies tacked on another run on a single from Anthony Brocato, scoring Troy Dixon from second. The Pride scored their only three runs in the top of the fifth inning. They scored on an error, wild pitch and an RBI single by Nick Bottari to score Steven Foster. The Red Storm came up big in the 6th inning. They ripped nine hits and scored nine ...
St. John’s Takes Two From Maine
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 ...
Power Rankings Volume 4
Weather caused many more cancellations this week (what else is new?). But there was still plenty of games that will factor into this week’s Power Rankings. In this edition, we are going to do things slightly different considering the difficulty in differentiating teams with less than 10 games under their belt. I will separate teams into five tiers based on their current record, momentum and likelihood of turning their seasons around. Tier 1- The Elite St. Johns (Record: 14-2, Stock UP) Another great week for the Johnnies, winning both of their games. They are hitting .323 as a team with a 2.62 ERA. John Valente is batting .486 and is headed towards an All-American season. Tier 2- Trending Up 2. Adelphi (Record: 8-6, Stock UP) Great offensive week down in Florida despite the 5-0 loss ...
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