St. John’s remembered to bring a broom to Shirley Povich Field.
The Red Storm, who currently sit atop of the conference standings, swept the Hoyas last weekend to knock Georgetown down to second-to-last in the Big East.
St. John’s (21-9, 7-1 Big East), kicked off the series with a 13-2 blowout over Georgetown (18-17, 3-7 Big East) in Saturday’s first game. Junior right-handed pitcher Anthony Varvaro (5-2), the Louisville Slugger national player of the week, led the charge with 10 strikeouts in six innings.
Senior right-hander Billy Quinn (0-2) took the hill for the Hoyas since junior Warren Sizemore and junior Stephen Burns, usual starters, are sidelined with injuries. Quinn lasted for 3.2 innings in his start, giving up seven hits and two earned runs for the losing decision.
“It was a hard loss to take,” Quinn said.
The only runs that Georgetown could muster came in the second inning as senior catcher Andrew Cleary’s second home run of the season put two on the board following junior Ryan Craft’s single.
Meanwhile, St. John’s racked up their 13 runs on 11 hits – helped out by four errors from the Georgetown defense.
Senior third baseman Jim Martin went 3-for-4 on the game with two RBIs while teammate Will Vogl, a junior outfielder, contributed three runs, two RBIs and a triple on 2-for-3 hitting.
The Red Storm brought the power, too, as sophomore first baseman Chris Joachim hit a solo homer in the fourth and junior left fielder Eddie Schultz blasted another jack on a pinch hit in the seventh. The round-trippers were the third of the season for both players.
Though the runs came in bunches for the Red Storm in game one, their bats were silent for the first half of the second game. But St. John’s pieced together five runs over the last four innings to take a 5-2 victory.
Freshman lefty Michael Gaggioli (3-2) stretched for 7.2 innings in his start, giving up eight hits but just one earned run to the Red Storm, which boasts one of the top offenses in the Big East with a .295 team batting average.
St. John’s three pitchers combined to hold the Hoyas to only three hits. Quinn went 2-for-4 and drove in both of Georgetown’s two runs. He led off the fourth inning with a solo blast, following with a double in the sixth to score sophomore left fielder Mark McLaughlin, who had reached on senior right-handed pitcher Jim Wladkya’s error.
McLaughlin picked up a hit of his own in the second inning, a single that left him on base, even after another error on Wladyka.
Wladyka (3-1) started for St. John’s, but sophomore reliever Justin Muir earned the win to improve to a 3-2 record. Junior righty Craig Hansen picked his fifth save after working the last two innings.
Sunday’s game proved fruitless for the Hoyas again as the Red Storm wrapped up a three-game sweep in an 8-2 win.
While St. John’s sophomore right-handed starter Robert Delaney (3-0) did not allow any earned runs in six innings with seven Ks for the win, Georgetown righty Eddie Pena (1-4) gave up six earned runs with two strikeouts in his 6.1-inning loss.
Junior centerfielder Greg Thomson’s four RBIs led the Red Storm, along with three hits and two runs. His fifth-inning homer, which was his fifth this year, scored senior third baseman Jim artin and senior shortstop P.J. Antoniato, who both singled with two outs.
Sophomore Anthony Smith, normally a pitcher, led off the eighth inning with a solo pinch-hit home run, his first this season. The Hoyas put up a last-gasp run in the ninth as Craft, who was hit by a pitch, scored on junior centerfielder Tim Jones’ two-out double, but it was not enough to overcome the six-run deficit.
Georgetown recovered from the series sweep in a 10-4 Wednesday win over the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (7-17, 1-2 America East). The Hoyas jumped out to an early lead as they put up three runs in the first and two in the third.
Senior second baseman Parker Brooks, who led off the game with a single, advanced to third base on UMBC sophomore catcher Tom Rinaldi’s bad throw when Brooks stole second. McLaughlin walked and went to second on a passed ball. After Quinn walked, Craft doubled down the left-field line to score Brooks and cLaughlin. Quinn later scored on junior first baseman Drew Dargan’s sacrifice fly. Quinn’s bat led Georgetown again as he went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and three runs.
“UMBC was one of the first times where we went out and we didn’t wait to score,” Quinn said.
The Hoyas rounded out the evening with a four-run ninth inning as Quinn and Craft launched back-to-back home runs for their seventh and eighth on the year, respectively.
The Retrievers went through six pitchers as they tried to quiet the Hoya bats. Right-handed pitcher Steve Evans, the starter (0-2), took the loss after allowing five earned runs, four walks and four hits in 2.2 innings.
UMBC did not lose for lack of trying, though. The Retrievers racked up 10 hits but scored only four runs.
Hoya senior lefty Michael Halloran (5-1) got the W for five innings of work in which he gave up two earned runs and five hits.
Georgetown looks to improve its Big East standing in its upcoming weekend series against bottom-dwelling Seton Hall (8-21, 2-8 Big East) in South Orange, N.J.
A sweep would help the Hoyas get back on a winning track, Quinn said.
“This is the first year since I’ve been here that I’ve felt that we have a chance in the Big East,” he said. “I feel we could even make the playoffs. This weekend is really important for that.”
