Posted by Mike Cunniff
The St. John’s baseball team couldn’t wait to get home.
After going 1-5 in their last six games and giving up over nine runs per game during that stretch, the Red Storm’s home opener couldn’t come soon enough.
They made the most of their home cooking, routing Fairfield 16-5 at Jack Kaiser stadium Wednesday
“It’s tough to play on the road,” said head coach Ed Blankmeyer. “I don’t think we played particularly badly (on the road). We defended really well. We swung the bats well enough to win. But we didn’t pitch. When you don’t pitch and you walk batters, you’re not going to win a lot of ball games.”
Blankmeyer turned to sophomore pitcher Eddie Medina to try to turn things around. He made his first start of the year with mixed results.
On the positive side, he allowed two runs on just one hit in five-plus innings.
On the negative side, he walked five batters and struggled with his control all day.
“Against a Big East opponent, you’re going to be in trouble when you give things away,” said Blankmeyer. “For his first time out, I would say it was acceptable but, again, more strikes and more fastball command.”
Medina’s job was made considerably easier by his teammates. They jumped on Fairfield starter Rob Gariano early, staking Medina out to a two run lead in the first inning. After junior first baseman Paul Karmas walked, shortstop Joe Panik blasted a two-run home run out by the bullpens in right field.
They pushed the lead to six in the third inning. Senior rightfielder Jimmy Parque led off with a double, and scored after Gariano made a throwing error on Karmas’ sacrifice bunt. Three straight singles by Panik, junior third baseman Greg Hopkins and freshman designated hitter Sean O’Hare led to two more runs. The fourth run scored when freshman leftfielder Jeremy Baltz’ grounded into a double play.
Fairfield did not go quietly, however, scoring once in the fifth and twice in the sixth and seventh to close the gap to 6-5. They scored their five runs on just three hits, helped by four walks and two St. John’s errors in those three innings.
But in the bottom of the seventh, St. John’s put the game out of reach. They sent 13 men to the plate, including eight with two outs and plated nine runs, highlighted by a three-run home run by Baltz.
Freshman center fielder Jimmy Brennan and junior catcher Joe Witkowski both suffered injuries. Brennan hurt his shoulder in the sixth inning lunging for a fly ball over his head. Blankmeyer said it appeared to be bruised or separated pending the result of an MRI. Witkowski sprained his ankle when he landed on Fairfield third basemen David Dudish after leaping for an errant throw by Panik.
With the win, St. John’s improves to 9-5 while Fairfield drops to 5-4. The Johnnies continue their five game homestand on Friday when they open a three game series with Albany.
