St. John’s salvaged the rubber match with the Georgetown Hoyas by a score of 9-6 this weekend, coming away with their first conference series win of the season after dropping the first game in a 10-inning heartbreaker.
The Red Storm (17-18, 3-5 BIG EAST ) utilized contributions from the entire team to hand a dominant Georgetown (17-15, 7-2 BIG EAST) its first and second conference losses of the year. Outstanding pitching was consistent the entire series, but it was the offensive explosion in the final two games that proved decisive in the Johnnies’ success.
“It was a true team effort this weekend to bring home our first conference series of the season against a very competitive Georgetown team,” head coach Amy Kvilhaug said after Sunday’s win. “It was great to see our team step up after a tough 10-inning battle with the Hoyas on Saturday morning to come back and combine for 29 hits over our final two games to bring home the series.”
About a quarter of those hits could be attributed to freshman third baseman Kaitlin Fitzgerald, who went 7-12 in the series. Fitzgerald successfully reached base (her 20th consecutive game with a leadoff single) to start the decisive rally in the fourth inning of Saturday afternoon’s matchup. The freshman also hit a pair of home runs in Sunday’s win.
St. John’s opened the series with far quieter bats, managing only two hits while sophomore RHP Tori Free pitched a complete-game gem, striking out 10. Despite surrendering only a single, Free let in the final run of the game on a sac-fly in the bottom of the 10th.
The Johnnies, however, came back with a vengeance later in the day, accumulating season-high 16 hits in their second-game victory. It began with Erin Burner blasting her 10th home run of the season to tie the game at 2-2 in the top of the third, and ended with back-to-back four-run innings in the fifth and sixth to bring the Red Storm a 12-2 victory.
On Sunday, with the series on the line, the score was tied at 3-3 going into the third inning. It was then that the Johnnies would keep the lead for good after going up 5-3 thanks to Fitzgerald’s second homer of the game. Three-for-four performances from Fitzgerald, Brittany Garcia and Jackie Reed would help St. John’s seal the deal.
“It was great to get our first conference series win of the year,” Fitzgerald said. “We know that we can compete and getting this series victory will help us with the confidence to go out and do well in the BIG EAST.”
The Johnnies will look to carry their momentum into games at Fordham and LIU Brooklyn before completing their eight-game road trip at Providence this upcoming weekend.
