St. John's Jamie Galazin went 1-for-4 with a run and three RBI.
No. 1 seed St. John’s Advances To Winners’ Bracket With 5-2 Victory Over Georgetown
St. John's 5, Georgetown 2 (PDF)
MASON, Ohio – Top seed St. John’s advanced to the winners bracket of the BIG EAST Championship Presented by Jeep with a 5-2 comeback win over No. 4 Georgetown on Thursday in the afternoon game. It was the first time the Red Storm advanced in the tournament via the winners’ bracket since 2015.
Eighteenth ranked St. John’s (27-14) will play the winner of Seton Hall/Butler who will play in the second game on Friday at 6:30 p.m. ET.
Georgetown (25-29) will play the loser in the 2:30 p.m. game.
St. John’s ace Sean Mooney allowed two runs on five hits over 6.1 innings of work, tying the St. John’s single-season record with his 11th win of the year. The sophomore is now the third player in program history to reach 11 victories in a single campaign, joining Ryan McCormick in 2015 and Tom Sowinski in the College World Series season of 1968. The unanimous First Team All-BIG EAST selection fanned three Hoyas, bumping his season-long strikeout total to 100.
For the Red Storm, Joe LaSorsa deftly worked his way out of trouble in the seventh and eighth innings before closing the door in the ninth, nabbing his team-leading seventh save of the year with 2.2 frames of scoreless, two-hit work. Luke Stampfl fell a double shy of the cycle, going 3-for-4 with a triple and a solo home run. The graduate student was robbed of potential extra bases in his final at-bat by a diving stop at third. Jamie Galazin also left the yard for St. John’s, launching a three-run home run to put St. John’s up for good in the third. Anthony Brocato doubled and drove in a run while Wyatt Mascarella and Mike Antico also tallied two-baggers for the Red Storm.
The Hoyas led 2-0 with single runs in each of the first two innings. Alex Bernauer laced a two-out double in the top of the first that scored Ryan M. Davis all the way from first. In the second, Freddy Achecar III was hit by a pitch, moved to second on a ground out and third on an error before crossing the plate on a single by Michael DeRenzi to give GU a 2-0 lead.
Brent Killam started on the mound and went 6.0 innings, allowing five runs on eight hits and one walk, while striking out eight. Kevin Superko fired two scoreless innings of relief with one strikeout.
Trailing by a pair, the Red Storm quickly cut into the Georgetown lead in the bottom of the second. With one out and nobody on, Stampfl cranked a triple to the gap in left center before coming home to score on a Brocato grounder in the following at-bat, narrowing the deficit to 2-1 after two.
After Mooney stranded runners on the corners in the top of the third, the Red Storm jumped ahead in the home half thanks to one powerful swing from Galazin. Jordan Gillerman led off the frame with a perfectly executed bunt single down the first base line before Antico doubled off the wall in right to put a pair of runners in scoring position with no outs. Two batters later, Galazin launched a moon shot to left center, clearing the high fence and putting the Johnnies ahead, 4-2.
Following Mooney’s first of three-straight 1-2-3 innings in the top of the fourth, Stampfl led off the bottom of the frame with a solo shot to left center, bumping the Red Storm lead to three, 5-2. The graduate student crushed the offering from Killam, easily clearing the fence for what was arguably his hardest-hit ball as a member of the Johnnies.
Georgetown brought the tying run to the plate in both the seventh and eighth innings, but could not bring any runs home as St. John’s shut out the Hoyas over the final seven innings.