June 5, 2004

Box Score

Palo Alto, Calif. - Stanford jumped out to an early lead in the first, and added runs in four-straight innings as the No. 1-ranked Cardinal topped St. John's, 7-2, in the NCAA Regional at Sunken Diamond. The win eliminates the Red Storm from the NCAA Tournament, while Stanford advances to play Long Beach State in the regional championship game.

St. John's season ends with a 37-23 record. The 37 wins are the most since the 1980 team won 40 games and advanced to the College World Series. Saturday afternoon's win against UNLV marked the first NCAA Tournament win for ninth-year head coach Ed Blankmeyer, and it was the program's first NCAA win since beating Cal State-Northridge in the 1993 season.

The Cardinal had nine hits, but took advantage of the Red Storm tying a season-high with five errors, scoring four unearned runs. Stanford had a 3-1 lead after four innings, but a monster two-run home run from John Mayberry in the fifth opened up a 5-1 lead and gave Cardinal freshman Matt Leva all of the support he would need.

"You have to field the ball to win and we didn't do that tonight," Blankmeyer said. "At the same, I'm really proud of this team and the effort they put forth this year. They accomplished a tremendous amount and they have a lot to proud of."

In the first, Stanford centerfielder Sam Fuld hit a sharp groundball to short that Red Storm senior Mike Rozema (Fair Lawn, N.J.) made a nice back-handed play on, but his throw went high allowing Fuld to move to second. After freshman starter Matt Tosoni (Whitby, Ontario) recorded the second out, John Mayberry followed with a triple to the wall in right, giving Stanford a 1-0 lead.

A leadoff home run from Chris Minaker in the third gave the Cardinal a 2-0 lead, but St. John's cut the lead in half in the bottom of the inning as they manufactured a run. Sophomore Ken Devenney (Philadelphia, Pa.) drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on a wild pitch, to third on a sacrifice bunt from senior Anthony DeRosa (Salem, N.H.) and scored when junior Jim Martin (Norwood, Mass.) grounded out to first base.

That was all the Red Storm would get, as Leva, a freshman who had thrown no more than four innings all season, threw a complete game, yielding only the one run on five hits, with one walk and five strikeouts.

The Cardinal increased the lead to 3-1 in the fourth, taking advantage of an error and two walks. Mayberry reached on an error by Rozema, one of three he had on the night, and was on third after walks to Danny Putman and Donny Lucy. Sophomore first baseman Eddie Schultz (Flemington, N.J.) prevented a big inning when he stabbed a hard ground ball from Chris Carter with a dive to his right, as Mayberry scored.

Jonny Ash hit a one-out single in the fifth and scored when Mayberry hit a towering home run on an 0-2 pitch from Tosoni, increasing the Cardinal lead to 5-1.

The Red Storm added a run in the bottom of the ninth when sophomore Greg Thomson (Levittown, N.Y.) doubled down the right field line and scored when junior catcher Joe Burke (Brooklyn, N.Y.) singled through the right side.

Tosoni went six innings, allowing six runs (three earned) on seven hits, with three walks and two strikeouts. Senior Geno Orsogna (Norfolk, Mass.), who gave up a solo home run to Jed Lowrie in the eighth, went three innings, giving up one run on four hits with three strikeouts. Junior Jim Wladyka (Rutherford, N.J.) recorded the final out in the top of the ninth.