Box Score College Baseball
St. John's University 1, Rider University 0
QUEENS, NY—You couldn't blame Rider's ace if he took his teammates to court and sued them. For lack of support.
The Broncs lost a pitching duel at St. John's Friday afternoon in a game broadcast on ESPN3.
Rider senior Zach Mawson (Magnolia, DE/Caesar Rodney) pitched eight innings, giving up a run on five hits, striking out four without a walk. “Mawson pitched about as good as you can pitch,” said Rider head coach Barry Davis. “You can't pitch much better. He threw great.”
Mawson has pitched 27 innings this season and Rider has yet to score a run in any of them. “I'm getting tired of it,” Davis said. “That is a little frustrating. The run he gave up today shouldn't even have scored. We misplayed the ball that should have been caught.”
St. John's (11-9) scored the only run of the game in the fourth inning on a misplayed ball in the outfield that was ruled a double, a wild pitch and a ground ball out.
“We had a few opportunities,” Davis said. “We're not getting any breaks and we're not making any breaks.”
Junior James Locklear (Hamilton, NJ/Steinert) had two of Rider's four hits while junior Patrick Murphy (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) doubled for Rider (4-13). “Locklear hit the ball, moved it around, did a good job,” Davis said.
St. John's is picked to win the BIG EAST this year after finishing second (13-5) last year when the Red Storm finished 35-20.
St. John's is among the national leaders in field percentage (.983).
This was the first meeting between Rider and St. John's since 1999.
Rider and St. John's have now met 36 times since the series began in 1929, with the Red Storm holding a 25-11 advantage. Three of those St. John victories came in the NCAA tournament, two in 1986 and one in 1985.
Game two of the series is Saturday at 1pm. “I like our attitude, I like the way we competed,” Davis said. “We just need to execute. We played hard, we played well.”
The final game of the three-game series, Sunday at 1pm, will also be broadcast on ESPN3.
-ru-
