St. John’s Rallies For 3-2 Victory Over Seton Hall in #BIGEASTbase Championship
Box Score
OMAHA, Neb. – Trailing by a run after seven and a half innings of play, No. 2 seed St. John’s utilized a pair of clutch extra-base hits and a timely sacrifice fly to pull ahead in the bottom of the eighth en route to a 3-2 win over Seton Hall on Friday afternoon at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha.
With the victory, the Red Storm (41-10) advances to face the loser of tonight’s contest between Xavier and Creighton in an elimination game tomorrow after at 3:30 p.m. ET.
Freshman Joe LaSorsa picked up his seventh win of the season for the Red Storm, throwing three innings of one-hit relief and lowering his ERA to 1.99 on the year. Senior Ryan McAuliffe retired all three batters he faced in the ninth inning to register his first save of the season.
Despite not earning the victory, junior left-hander Kevin Magee put forth an incredibly resilient effort in the starting role for St. John’s, throwing 94 pitches over five innings while surrendering two runs and tying a career-high with seven strikeouts.
Josh Shaw went 2-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI to lead the way for the Red Storm. The sophomore from Wayne, N.J., delivered the game-tying two-bagger in the eighth before eventually scoring the game-winning run two batters later.
Gui Gingras also recorded a 2-for-4 day, with one-RBI for the Johnnies, kicking off a crucial eighth-inning rally with a triple to the wall in center.
Robbie Knightes drove in the game-winning run for the Johnnies, lifting the decisive sac fly to left center to give the Red Storm their first lead of the game in the eighth.
Seton Hall (29-24) jumped out to an early lead, stringing together four hits to plate a pair of runs in the top of the first. Matt Toke scored Joe Poduslenko with a one-out single down the left field line. With two outs, second baseman Mike Caputo singled up the middle to score Toke.
The Red Storm quickly responded in the home half, as Valente ripped a first-pitch double before coming around to score on a Gingras single to left, making it a 2-1 game after one in favor of Seton Hall.
For the second time in two years, St. John’s will play in Saturday’s elimination game.