Published: March 04, 2007
BEAUMONT, Texas
The St. John's baseball team (2-7) jumped all over Lamar
(9-5) in the first three innings, racking up 12 hits and
scoring 13 runs, on its way to a 14-3 win at the Lamar Classic on
Sunday.
Anthony Smith doubled twice, homered for the second straight
game and collected a career-high six RBI for the Red Storm, and
five other players drove in runs in the team's second straight
win.
Sophomore right-hander
Jared Yecker (1-2, 2.16 ERA) benefited from the St. John's
scoring outburst and went deep into the game to get his first win.
Yecker did not allow a run after the first inning and gave up six
hits and two runs over seven strong innings of work. Junior
James Lally and sophomore
Rich Armento sealed the win with respective appearances in the
eighth and ninth innings.
Smith again exploded for the Red Storm and made his first start
of the season in right field. The senior, who had three hits and
three RBI in Saturday's 9-6 win over UC Santa Barbara, anchored the
offense with three extra-base hits and six RBI.
Ryan Mahoney hit his third home run of the season in the top of
the first inning, and freshmen
Brian Kemp and
Daniel Rose each added three hits apiece.
The Red Storm wasted no time getting on the board, using five
hits to score four runs in the first inning. Mahoney homered to
right-center field to give St. John's a 2-0 lead, and Smith ripped
his third of the year to right field with two outs and nobody on
base.
Gil Zayas kept the inning alive with his second double of the
tournament and scored on an RBI single up the middle by
Brendan Monaghan.
Lamar cut the lead in half by way of the long ball in the bottom
half of the inning, as second baseman Ryan Baker drove a Yecker
pitch over the left-center field wall to make the score 4-2.
St. John's put up six runs in the second inning to blow the game
open and added three more in the third to take a double-digit lead
at 13-2. Smith hit a three-run double in the second and a two-run
double in the third to lead effort, while Rose knocked in two runs
with a second-inning single and Kemp and
Sam DeLuca hit RBI singles to stretch the lead.
Yecker worked out of jams in the second, third, fourth and fifth
innings to hold the Cardinals scoreless and preserve the big lead.
St. John's tacked on a run on a Mahoney RBI single in the eighth,
and Lamar pushed a run across off Armento in the ninth to make the
final score 14-3.
The Red Storm continues its Spring Break trip this week with a
contest at No. 4 Rice on Tuesday and a three-game series at McNeese
State from Thursday to Saturday. First pitch for the Tuesday night
game against the Owls is scheduled for 7 p.m. (8 p.m. EST).