Box Score

The Fairleigh Dickinson baseball team dropped a Wednesday afternoon non-conference game to St. John's, 15-7, at Belson Stadium in Queens, NY.  With the victory, the Red Storm improves to 6-9 on the season, while the Knights fall to 3-6-1 overall.

With the game tied at six heading into the bottom of the fourth, St. John's scored single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to take a 9-6 lead.  The Red Storm put the game away with a six-run seventh.  Knights' pitching walked 17 men on the day and failed to strike out a batter.

Senior Matt Holsman (Coral Springs, FL/Stoneman Douglas) led FDU's nine-hit attack with a 2-for-4 performance as he drove in a run and scored a run.  Senior Ryan Kresky (Freehold, NJ/Freehold) drove home two with his second home run of the season and scored two runs, while freshman Pat McClure (Fayetteville, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius ) picked up two RBI's.

Freshman Jordan Ritz (Newport News, Va./Woodside) singled to left to start the game as his fly ball was lost in the sun by the left fielder.  Kresky crushed the first pitch he saw deep over the right field fence to give the Knights a 2-0 lead with one out.

St. John's Jeremy Baltz hit a RBI sacrifice fly to center field to cut the lead to 2-1 with one out in the bottom of the first.

The Red storm scored five times in the bottom of the third to take a 6-2 lead.  Zach Lauricella blooped in a single to right field to tie the game at two with one out.  Martin Kelly followed with a two-run double to center field that was misplayed to make it it 4-2.  Eric Peterson's two-run single to center with one out capped the scoring.

However, FDU answered in the top of the fourth with a four-spot to tie the game at four.  Kresky walked to lead off the inning and scored on McClure's double to left-center field.  With one out, Holsman singled home McClure.  Freshman Mike Hewson (Sayville, NY/Sayville) reached base with a single, and fellow classmate Riley Moonan (Syracuse, N.Y./Cicero North) then walked to load the bases. 

After a pitching change, freshman Shane Siebler (Nazareth, Pa./Nazareth Area) drove in Holsman with an RBI groundout to third base.  Hewson scored the final run of the inning when Ritz reached on an error by the shortstop.

St. John's took the lead for good with a run in the bottom half of the fourth and tacked on single runs in the fifth and sixth innings before exploding for six in the bottom of the seventh.  McClure drove home a run in the top of the ninth on walk, but it was not enough as the Red Storm took the contest, 15-7.

Freshman Mitch Paz (Bridgeport, CT/St. Joseph) (0-2) was tagged with the loss.  He allowed seven earned runs in 3.1 innings of work as he walked nine, while allowing only three hits.  Freshman Ryan MacDonald (Bethpage, N.Y./Island Trees), making his first appearance on the mound in his career, allowed two earned runs on three hits and walked five.  Freshman Yonah Perline (Dix Hills, N.Y./St. Dominic) pitched only a third of an inning and was charged with three earned runs on two hits, while Holsman pitched the final two innings.

Peterson led the Red Storm's 11-hit attack by going 3-for-4 with three RBI's and two runs scored.  Jimmy Brennan went 2-for-4 with  four RBI's and two runs scored, while Lauricella collected two hits, two RBI's and two runs scored.

St. John's threw six pitchers on the day as they combined to allow six runs, five earned, on nine hits.  They struck out four and walked five.  Jerome Werniuk was credited with the victory after the Knights knocked out starter Kevin Kilpatrick with one out in the fourth.

“Our bullpen was spent heading into today, so we needed to throw guys who are not pitchers (with the exception of Mitch Paz (Bridgeport, CT/St. Joseph)),” Head Coach Gary Puccio said.  “You never want to walk 17 guys in a game, but I thought we competed well, and this gives us confidence heading to our conference opener this weekend.”

The Knights will return to action on Friday, March 16 when they travel to West Long Branch, NJ to take on rival Monmouth to open Northeast Conference play.  First-pitch is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.