A tough weekend out in California dropped St. John’s baseball back under .500, as they lost two out of three to California State University, Bakersfield.
The Red Storm offense and bullpen were up to the task, but the current growing pains in the starting rotation were too much to overcome. St. John’s won its second game of the season on Friday, a close won by score of 5-4, and then dropped the Saturday and Sunday games.
St. John’s offense, their strength the last several years, has gotten off to a slow start, as they’re hitting just .227 with only 11 total extra base hits as a team thus far. Their starting pitching is also a work in progress, sporting a 7.35 ERA after a few losses to top-caliber programs in the early going.
So far on the season, St. John’s (2-4) hitting attack has been paced by freshmen and other newcomers. Redshirt freshman Aidan McDermott and true freshman Josh Shaw came through on Friday in a five-run 3rd inning. McDermott is 9-for-26 on the year and he and Shaw lead the team with seven RBI each.
After Joey Christopher could not make it out of the 4th inning, St. John’s shutdown bullpen pitched 5.1 shutout innings to nail down the win Friday. ABCA All-American closer Thomas Hackimer pitched two innings for his first save of the season.
On Saturday, CSU Bakersfield responded with a run in the 1st, three in the 2nd, two in the 4th, one in the 5th, two in the 6th, and one in the 8th, as they won easily 10-4. St. John’s committed four errors and gave up 11 hits and six walks. Monroe College transfer 1B Gui Gingras hit his first career home run in the ninth for the Johnnies.
The rubber game on Sunday was a much tighter affair. St. John’s briefly took a 3-1 lead in the seventh on an RBI single by Michael Donadio and a sacrifice fly from Gingras.
After Joey Graziano and Kevin Torres gave up the tying runs in the bottom of that inning, Hackimer gave St. John’s some extra chances to break through by tossing 3.1 scoreless innings.
However, the Red Storm couldn’t get another rally going, and Bakersfield won in the 11th on a walk-off single by David Metzgar, who had three RBI on the day and had scored the game-tying run in the 7th.
St. John’s returns to action this weekend at No. 14 Florida State.
