Caruso Shines In Senior Season, Playoff Hopes On The Horizon
By SEAN BRENNAN
Special to BIGEAST.com
Last year was the kind of baseball season some players can only dream about but for St. John’s Alex Caruso it was a dream come true.
Caruso, who was a junior last season, bagged more awards than Tom Hanks on Oscar night, or so it seemed. He was a unanimous First Team All-BIG EAST selection, was the recipient of the Jack Kaiser Award as the BIG EAST Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player and made the BIG EAST All-Tournament Team as he helped lead the Red Storm to the BIG EAST title and a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
This season there has been little drop off in Caruso’s output. He currently leads the BIG EAST in runs scored with 44, is second in on-base percentage (.461), is tops in walks with 43 and is second in sacrifice bunts with 10. His.304 average also has him just outside the top 10 in the league.
“It was just a really great year in general last year,” Caruso said. “We had the pitching and defense and overall we just came together as one unit. We all piggybacked off each other and picked each other up when someone didn’t get a hit or make a pitch.”
What is different from last season, however, is that the Red Storm has not officially locked up one of the coveted four spots for next week’s BIG EAST Tournament. St. John’s will close out the regular season beginning Thursday night when it begins a three-game series against a Creighton team that is tied for first place with Xavier in the conference.
“Yeah we haven’t locked up a spot yet,” said Caruso, St. John’s supreme leadoff hitter. “We just need to win one this weekend.”
The weekend battle should prove to be some much-see baseball as it pits the top pitching team in the BIG EAST – Creighton – vs. the conference’s best offensive team in the Johnnies.
The Bluejays come into the series ranked first in the conference in ERA (2.87), opposing batting average (.219), runs allowed (152. As a comparison, Seton Hall is second having allowed 198), earned runs allowed (129), saves (15) and have given up just 11 homers on the season, also tops in the conference.
On the flipside you have a Red Storm unit that should prove to be the stiffest test of the conference season for Creighton. The Johnnies are ranked first in team batting average (.288), runs scored (313), RBI (284), sacrifice flies (25) and is tied for first with 81 doubles. St. John’s places second both slugging percentage (.387) and on-base percentage (.369).
So let the games begin.
“We know what they have. They have 20-something returners back and they have it out for us after we beat them in the championship game on their field last year,” Caruso said. “We just want to finish the season playing good baseball and hopefully win another tournament.”
Aside from having knocked off the Bluejays in the tournament final last season, St. John’s also is carrying with it the pressure that comes from getting everyone’s best shot game in and game out as the defending champs. So is there pressure on the Johnnies to win the game they need to secure their spot in the tournament?
“We don’t really think about that,” Caruso said. “Coach (Ed Blankmeyer) just says keep playing good baseball. That’s all he asks of us, to compete and go out there and play as best as we can. Obviously we know we won last year and now we have a target on our back but it would be a great way to finish out my last two years, to get back to the tournament. We try not to think about that stuff because obviously we know we already have that target so we just go out there every game with a clean slate and just try to do as much as we can to get the tournament and make a run.”
Caruso arguably has the best offensive job in the league as he bats leadoff for the Johnnies’ stacked lineup. The tablesetter that makes it all go for St. John’s and the big bats of conference RBI leader Josh Shaw, Jesse Berardi, Troy Dixon and the rest of the Big Red Machine.
“It’s great. I hit leadoff so my job is basically just to get on base,” Caruso said. “I do whatever I can, I walk, bunt, anything. I’m not a big power guy but I like to be in those situations with those guys on base so I can prove to people that I can drive in runs. But I like to set the tone. Getting on base in my first at bat is my goal in every game.”
A trip back to the BIG EAST Tournament would not only provide the Johnnies an opportunity to become the first BIG EAST team to repeat as tournament champs since Louisville did it in 2008 and 2009, but it would prove the St. John’s had what it took to defeat a premier team like Creighton this weekend as well as give it an opportunity to even the score against one team in particular.
“I definitely think there are some teams that we’d like a second chance at,” Caruso said. “We definitely want to get back at Xavier (which took two of three from St. John’s in Cincinnati in late April). I think they would be different ballgames if we played them again. And obviously with Creighton we’re looking forward to this weekend, so we’ll see what happens. But there are also (good) teams like Seton Hall so anyone can beat any team.”
As a senior with a finite number of games remaining in his St. John’s career, Caruso is hoping to keep the uniform on for as long as he can and that starts with a successful series against Creighton this weekend in Queens.
“We’ve shown some spurts of playing good baseball but we haven’t had a complete weekend in my eyes yet,” Caruso said. “So hopefully we can finish up the season this weekend by playing some good baseball and finish strong heading into the tournament.”