Xavier Baseball Burned By Longball in Series Opener at No. 18 St. John's

Friday, May 12

Queens, N.Y.

1 p.m.

Xavier University

25-23, 7-4

St. John's

35-8, 9-4

Xavier

St. John's

Xavier Baseball Burned By Longball in Series Opener at No. 18 St. John's

05.12.17 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Season Stats (PDF)

XU pitching allows three homers in 7-3 loss on Friday afternoon

By: Brendan Bergen, Xavier Athletic Communications

QUEENS, N.Y. - No. 18 St. John's chased Musketeer ace Zac Lowther early and used three homers to get a 7-3 win over Xavier baseball in game one of a Friday doubleheader at Jack Kaiser Stadium.

Xavier fell to 25-23 (7-4 BIG EAST) with a fifth straight loss, while St. John's improved to 35-18 (9-4 BIG EAST).

NEXT UP

• Game two in the weekend series is underway in Queens. The series will wrap up with a single game on Sunday, currently scheduled for 12 p.m. at Jack Kaiser Stadium.

XU AT THE PLATE

• Seven different Musketeers recorded a hit in the game, but XU was held scoreless by St. John's ace Sean Mooney until the eighth inning.
• Will LaRue (1-for-4, R, 2 RBI) launched his second homer of the season in the ninth inning.
• Conor Grammes (1-for-4, RBI) provided XU's first run of the afternoon with a single up the middle in the eighth. Grammes now has a five-game hitting streak.
• Chris Givin (1-for-4) extended his team-high hitting streak to seven games.
• Rylan Bannon (1-for-4), Joe Gellenbeck (1-for-3, R), Nate Soria (1-for-4) and Matt Fallon (1-for-3) also provided hits for XU.
• The Musketeers failed to work a walk in the game for just the second time all season.

XU ON THE MOUND

• Junior ace Zac Lowther was chased after just two innings, allowing three earned runs (five total) and two homers. The lefty struck out three, giving him 99 on the season. That number already ranks second in a single season by an XU pitcher.
• Senior Trent Astle came on in relief, allowing just two hits in six strong innings.
• With the outstanding relief effort, Astle moved into eighth in XU history with 277.2 career innings pitched.

HOW XU SCORED

EIGHTH INNING: Sam Flamini reached on an error to being the frame, going to second on a two out single by Chris Givin. Conor Grammes followed with single up the middle to score Flamini and get XU on the board.
NINTH INNING: Joe Gellenbeck led off with a single down the right field line, moving to second on a passed ball. Will LaRue then squared one up, hitting a homer to deep right field to score a pair and make it 7-3.