College Baseball

St. John's University 17, Rider University 3

QUEENS, NY—The Broncs let one get away from themselves Saturday afternoon at St. John's. “It is disappointing how our bullpen and our defense played,” said Rider head coach Barry Davis.

In a game that started in the snow, St. John's (12-9) scored four runs in the seventh inning and five more in the eighth to blow the game open. “The bullpen has to do a better job,” Davis said.

Rider junior pitcher Vincenzo Aiello (Staten Island, NY/Tottenville) started and pitched the first three innings, allowing one run.  “Vinnie's arm got stiff and we didn't want to take any chances with it,” Davis said. “He doesn't walk four guys in three innings under normal conditions, so we got him out of there.”

The Red Storm scored six runs in the fourth inning on two singles, a double, three walks and an error to take a 7-0 lead. “We made an error on the first ground ball and then we couldn't get anybody out,” Davis said. “That took a competitive game out of competition. The fourth inning was the game-breaker. It took us from 1-0 to 7-0.”

Rider (4-14) got on the board in the top of the seventh inning when junior James Locklear (Hamilton, NJ/Steinert) singled and scored on a double by senior Greg Fazio (Far Hills/Ridge).

Senior Justin Thomas (Richboro, PA/Council Rock South) hit a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning to score senior Nick Richter (Fox River Grove, Ill./Cary-Grove), who had one of Rider's four hits.

St. John's took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a triple and a ground out RBI.

“Today our pitchers gave up 12 walks and we made four errors,” Davis said.  “Your aren't going to beat too many teams like that, especially a good team like St. John's. Today we didn't pitch, we didn't play defense and we didn't hit.”

Rider and St. John's have now met 38 times since the series began in 1929, with the Red Storm holding a 26-11 advantage. Three of those St. John victories came in the NCAA tournament, two in 1986 and one in 1985.

Game three of the series is Sunday at 1pm, and will be broadcast on ESPN3. “Hopefully we can put together a better game tomorrow,” Davis said. 

-ru-