Snow stops Storm after series win
Joseph Staszewski
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After finishing their month long slate of games in the warm comfort of the South, St. John's came home only to see their field covered in snow, postponing Tuesday's home opener against Hofstra. SJU, however had their solid performance during their series win over UNC-Ashville to hang their winter coats on.
SJU's brightest moment came in the series finale as senior Jim Wladyka threw six innings of one hit ball helping the Red Storm to a 7-1 series clinching win.
"We talked about how the last couple of years when we struggled when we went down South," Wladyka said. "But this year we turned it around a little bit. We're playing good baseball."
Wladyka, after struggling in the first by walking Matt Roberts, who eventually stole second and scored on a David Williams' single, was perfect through the next five. The junior righthander retired 13 straight batters before surrending a single in the seventh.
"I had a good feel for my pitches," he said. "I was throwing my fast ball in and out well, getting ahead with my breaking ball and using my slider as my out-pitch a lot. I had a lot of quick outs."
Wladyka finished the game yielding only one run on two hits while striking out two in six innings of work.
The SJU offense gave Wladyka all the run support he needed early, knocking home three runs in the first three innings. The big blow came in the third when junior P.J. Antoniato hit his third homerun of the year driving a shot into the wind that hooked around the left field foul pole giving the Red Storm a 3-1 lead.
"P.J. Antoniato has been a creature of bad luck," Blankmeyer said about his second baseman who sports just a .246 average. "He has hit a lot of line drives that have been caught."
SJU added two insurance runs in the fifth on singles by Eddie Shutlz and Greg Thomson. Shultz's seventh inning homer, his second of the season, and a Martin single, capped a game in which the top six batters in the SJU lineup went 11-23 with six runs scored and six RBI.
Relievers Anthony Sullivan, Rob Delaney and Craig Hanson pitched three and one third scoreless innings to close out the Bulldogs.
"It's important to get a win," Blankmeyer said. "We could have won all of them."
SJU's lone loss in the series came in the opener. After rallying to take a 6-5 lead in the ninth on singles by Blake Hershleman and De Rosa, the Red Storm could not hold the lead.
With runners on the corners with one out Roberts hit a short hop groundball to third, but he beat out Derek Sullivan's throw to first allowing Nick Jaksa to score tying the game.
After SJU had a chance to win the game in the top of the tenth, Bulldog's senior Steven Sherman hit a one-out solo homerun in the 10th, sealing the win.
A day later, the Red Storm ended their four game losing streak behind the bat of Hershelman and the arms of Matt Tosoni and Gene Orsogna. Hershelman who is batting .440 with four homeruns, two of which came in this game.
"Blake's locked in," the eight-year head coach said. "He's using the whole field and putting a good swing on strikes.
SJU got four runs in the seventh on singles by Antoniato, Thompson, and Shultz as well as a ground out by Martin.
After Joe Reid was knocked out early Tosoni came on to give the Johnnies five and one third innings of solid relief allowing just one run on four hits. Orsogna threw two and a third innings of scoreless baseball to earn his second career save.
There was, however, no saving the Storm's home opener as a glaze of white covered the green grass.
"That's baseball in the North East," Blankmeyer said.
SJU will face The Pride this Friday at 3 p.m. at The Ballpark at St. John's.
Red Storm win
St. John's
6
UNC-Asheville
7
2 of 3 then fall
St. John's
9
UNC-Asheville
7
Victim to the Snow
St. John's
7
UNC-Asheville
1
