Jamestown Box Score |
Marian Box ScoreTUCSON, Ariz. – Saint John's baseball opened its 2016 season with two losses, over a grueling 22 innings (a combined six hours and 30 minutes), on Thursday, March 10, in warm Tucson, Ariz.
The Johnnies surrendered a four-run lead in the ninth inning of an eventual 7-6 loss to NAIA Jamestown (N.D.) in 13 innings and then suffered a 9-4 loss to Marian (Wis.).
The Jimmies entered the Johnnies' season opener with an 18-0 record, including eight wins in the fall. SJU tacked on two runs in the second inning before senior first baseman/pitcher
Patrick Strey (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview) launched his second collegiate home run over the left-field fence to give the Johnnies a 4-0 lead in the third inning.
SJU manufactured two runs in the top of the ninth to take a 6-2 lead to the bottom half of the inning. The Jimmies dropped a one-out single down the left-field line, coaxed a full-count walk and then poked a well-placed single through the right side on a hit-and-run (where the second baseman would have been). A groundball single through the left side followed before sophomore
Ben Etzell (Greenbank, Wash./Coupeville) registered his second strikeout of the inning. Jamestown tied the game in the next at-bat with a Texas-leaguer down the right-field line that plated two.
Freshman pitcher
Tommy Auger (St. Cloud, Minn./Cathedral) retired the first seven men he faced in extra innings before the Jimmies tallied back-to-back doubles in the 13th to win it. As planned, SJU used multiple pitchers (eight total), including five that threw only one inning apiece.
Marian (6-3 overall) cracked 17 hits as SJU committed four errors in the second game. The Sabres scored four runs, spurred by a three-run homer, in the third inning. Senior shortstop
Logan Hershey (Maple Grove, Minn.) cut the Johnnies' deficit to 4-2 with an RBI triple in the fourth inning, but MU tacked on three more runs, one earned, in the sixth.
A two-run, pinch-hit triple from freshman
Jack Wingerd (St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall) cut SJU's deficit to 7-4 in the seventh inning, but Marian answered with two more in the top of the eighth.
Freshman
Cameron Jurek (Foley, Minn.) was tagged with the loss in his first collegiate start, allowing four runs on six hits in four innings of work. He struck out four and walked one.
Hershey ended the day 5-for-10, including 2-for-2 with runners in scoring position, with three RBI and a triple. His first hit of the day, a single in his first at-bat of the season, enabled him to become the 26th Johnnie in school history to reach 100 for a career. The rest of the team batted 15-for-78 (.192) on the day, including 3-for-22 (.136) with runners in scoring position.
The Johnnies take on Wheaton (Ill.) for 3:30 p.m. MST doubleheader on Friday, March 11, in Tucson.
