Box Score

FT. MYERS, Fla. – Saint John's baseball ended the spring-break trip with its first loss of the season, 7-3, to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (N.Y.) on Friday, March 8, in Ft. Myers, Fla.

SJU (8-1 overall) collected only seven hits and committed seven errors in the loss, which concluded 70 innings of baseball in five days. On the contrary, Friday's morning game was the sixth in six days for USMMA (5-1 overall).

The loss was just the Johnnies' seventh in their last 49 regular-season games going back to 2017.

The Mariners jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead with three hits off senior Bennett Wiggins (St. Anthony, Minn.) and an error in the bottom of the first inning.

SJU answered with two runs in the top of the second, but USMMA responded with two more in the bottom half.

The Johnnies cut their deficit to two (5-3) on an RBI groundout from senior second baseman Thomas Meland (Northfield, Minn.) in the fifth inning. The Mariners took advantage of three SJU errors in the eighth to plate two insurance runs.
 
Junior third baseman Jack Schramel (St. Cloud, Minn./Cathedral) reached base all four times, going 2-for-2 with two walks, to lead SJU at the plate. He batted .533 (8-for-15) with four runs scored and three RBI in the final four games.

Wiggins fell to 2-1 with the loss, allowing five runs (two earned) on six hits in three innings. The appearance was his fourth of the week and first start.

Junior Mason Miller (Big Lake, Minn.) threw three innings of shutout baseball and sophomore Nick Penick (Cold Spring, Minn./Rocori) was tagged for two unearned runs in 1.1 innings pitched. Senior Danny Kuhn (Alexandria, Minn.) recorded the final two outs.

The Johnnies travel to another warm-weather state, Arizona, for seven games in four days March 16-19 in Tucson.