The St. John’s baseball teamopened conference play by droppingthree straight on the road over theweekend to Pittsburgh.
After averaging more than 13 runs pergame on their fi ve game homestand lastweek, the Red Storm (12-9, 0-3 Big East)struggled at the plate, scoring only fi veruns in the three game series. Their struggleswere compounded by the quality ofpitching they saw. The three Pittsburghstarters they faced are a combined 15-0and all have ERAs under three.
“They’re tough,” said Head Coach EdBlankmeyer. “But it’s nothing we haven’tseen and nothing we haven’t been around.
We didn’t swing the bats and didn’t makeadjustments.”
Friday’s game featured strongoutputs from both starting pitchers.After giving up a two-run home run inthe fi rst inning, St. John’s senior starterBruce Kern settled down, giving upjust one run in the next 5 2/3 innings.
He was outpitched, however, byPittsburgh starter Corey Baker. Baker,who improved to 6-0 on the seasonwith the win, went seven innings, andallowed just one run on fi ve hits.
The Johnnies’ best chance to get toBaker came in the fi rst inning. Theyloaded the bases with nobody out withsophomore shortstop Joe Panik at theplate. Panik hit a sacrifi ce fl y and Bakerstruck out the next two batters and St.John’s came away with just one run.
Baker shut out the Johnnies for therest of the game and the Pittsburghoffense provided just enough offenseto give him a 4-1 victory.
Saturday’s game, a 13-1 rout, gotout of hand early. Pittsburgh scoredthree runs in the second inning, aidedby a balk by St. John’s freshman KyleHansen with runners on fi rst and third.
A solo home run in the third inningby Pittsburgh fi rst basemen DavidChester pushed the lead to 4-0.In the fourth, the Panthers broke thegame open with fi ve runs on six hits.
They sent 11 men to the plate and scoredall fi ve runs before making an out.
Pittsburgh starter Mark Iannazzowent seven innings, giving up one runon fi ve hits. He did not allow a rununtil the seventh, well after the gamewas decided, when freshman left fi elderJeremy Baltz led off with a home run.
Sunday’s tilt was moved from itsoriginal noon start time to 11 a.m. totry to avoid the rain that was passingthrough the area. But even with the earlystart time, the teams still could only getsix and a half innings in before the gamewas called due to rain.
Freshman Matt Carasiti attemptedto be the stopper on Sunday. But aftercruising through the fi rst two innings,he lost control in the third. He gave upthree runs on three walks, a single andthree wild pitches while only retiring onebatter before being lifted in favor ofsophomore Stephen Rivera.
“That’s been the story of our teamright now-the walks,” said Blankmeyer.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys.Sometimes they just can’t fi nd therhythm and they walk batters.”
St. John’s showed some life late inthe action. Down 5-1 in the top of theseventh, they loaded the bases withnobody out. After two RBI groundoutsclosed the gap to 5-3, seniorright fi elder Jimmy Parque groundedout to end the threat. The game wasstopped after the inning, and calledshortly thereafter.
St. John’s plays its Big Easthome opener tomorrow as part of adoubleheader against Seton Hall startingat noon at Jack Kaiser Stadium.