St. John's Baseball's Season Ends At Clemson Regional
CLEMSON, S.C. -- St. John's baseball's season came to an end on Sunday at the Clemson Regional, where the Red Storm went 1-2. BIG EAST Player the Year John Valente and outfielder Mike Antico were named to the Regional All-Tournament Team. Vanderbilt, the No. 2 seed, won the Clemson Regional and moved on to the Super Regionals for the second straight year out of that bracket.
St. John's, the No. 3 seed in the bracket, lost to Vanderbilt 2-0 on Friday afternoon. On Saturday, the Red Storm defeated No. 4 seed Morehead State, 11-5. In Sunday's elimination game, St. John's fell just short against top-seed Clemson, 9-8. The Red Storm had entered the bottom of the ninth facing a five-run deficit. SJU scored four runs in the frame before ultimately coming up short.
Needing a handful of runs in the ninth to extend the contest into extras, Antico led off the frame with a solo shot to right, his second home run in as many days. Following singles from Valente and Josh Shaw, Anthony Brocato belted a three-run shot to left, bringing the Johnnies within just a single tally with one out. Next to the plate was Luke Stampfl, who, having already gone deep in the first inning, sent one to the warning track in left for the second out. Wyatt Mascarella also put a charge into the ball in the following at-bat, but his effort also fell just short as the Tigers recorded the game's last out at the track and advanced to the regional final against Vanderbilt.
The Johnnies jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and led as late as the sixth before Clemson's pulled ahead for good. St. John's outhit the Tigers, 16-9.
Valente earned a spot on the Clemson Regional All-Tournament Team for the second time in as many seasons after hitting .429 on the weekend (6-for-14) with a pair of doubles. Five of Valente’s nine career hits at Doug Kingsmore Stadium were doubles. After logging a two-bagger in the Red Storm’s 2-0 defeat at the hands of the Commodores in Friday’s opener, Valente went 3-for-5 with a double and two runs scored against Morehead State before registering two singles and scoring once in Sunday’s contest with Clemson.
Antico hit .364 (4-for-11) and drove in four runs on the weekend, all by way of the long ball. The sophomore went 2-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored in the Johnnies’ victory over Morehead State, smashing a three-run shot in the sixth. On Sunday against the top-seeded Tigers, Antico again picked up two hits including another homer, kicking off a ninth-inning rally with a solo shot.
As a team, St. John’s hit .306 on the weekend and logged 12 extra-base hits, smacking five doubles and seven roundtrippers. Antico and Mascarella each left the yard twice, marking the first time that a St. John’s player recorded multiple homers in a regional since 2010. That year, Jeremy Baltz (4), Joe Panik (2) and Matt Wessinger (2) led a St. John’s team that registered 10 homers in five games at the Charlottesville Regional.
St. John's won both the regular season and BIG EAST Championship title this season. The Red Storm went 15-3 in league play, the best winnning percentage since realignment, surpassing the 14-3 mark turned in by the 2015 Red Storm en route to their last conference title. The last BIG EAST team to finish a conference season with a winning percentage of .833 was Louisville (20-4) en route to a College World Series appearance in 2013.