March 21, 2008

Box Score

PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The Red Storm allowed just three singles and George Brown tossed 7.0 scoreless innings as St. John's shutout Rutgers, 2-0, in BIG EAST play. Greg Hopkins and Tim Morris each had an RBI, while Daniel Benedetti and Gil Zayas had two hits apiece to lead St. John's (15-4, 2-0). Casey Gaynor allowed two runs over 6.0 innings to lead Rutgers (5-11, 0-2).

A day after combining for 11 runs through four innings, St. John's and Rutgers were both held scoreless after the first four frames. In the fifth inning, however, it was a pair of one-out doubles that put the Red Storm on the board. Gil Zayas lined a double to deep left center and Tim Morris followed with a double of his own to put the Red Storm up 1-0.

The Scarlet Knights tried to get the run right back in the bottom of the frame as Jaren Matthews singled and reached second on an error to lead off the inning. Brown, however, retired the next three batters to keep Rutgers at bay.

In the sixth inning, the Red Storm opened with consecutive singles by Daniel Benedetti, Chris Anninos and Paul Karmas to load the bases with no outs. Greg Hopkins gave St. John's its fourth straight hit as the short stop singled to plate Benedetti and give St. John's a 2-0 lead. On the play, however, Anninos was thrown out at home for the first out. Gaynor was then able to induce a double play to get out of the inning.

Brown (4-0) faced just five batters over the minimum, induced a pair of double plays and retired eight batters in a row at one point. The lefty also tallied three strikeouts.

Justin Gutsie took over for Brown in the eighth and retired the side in order. After retiring St. John's in order in the ninth, Rutgers went to bat in the bottom of the ninth still down 2-0. Tom Edwards led off the inning by reaching on an error. After retiring the next two batters, Gutsie walked two to load the bases. Colin Lynch then entered the game for St. John's and struck out Brandon Boykin to end the threat and earn his fourth save of the year.