May 5, 2008

QUEENS, N.Y. - After a three-game sweep against BIG EAST foe West Virginia and a 4-0 week, the St. John's baseball team jumped to No. 21 in the Baseball America poll. The Red Storm's current ranking marks its highest ranking by Baseball America since May of 1981 when the squad checked in at No. 14. The No. 14 ranking is also the highest ever for St. John's in the Baseball America poll, which began in the 1981 season. View the Top 25 poll here.

The Red Storm (35-10, 16-5) defeated FDU 18-5 in a midweek contest before sweeping the Mountaineers over the weekend. St. John's took the opener 2-1 with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the tenth before exploding for a 10-3 victory on Saturday. St. John's trailed 5-2 entering the ninth in the series finale before getting Chris Anninos hit a game-tying three-run home run and Carlos Del Rosario belted a walk off solo home run to complete the sweep. Read Baseball America's review of the week here.

St. John's is also ranked No. 20 by the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll, the oldest collegiate baseball poll in America. View the Collegiate Baseball poll here.

The Red Storm also makes its first regular season appearance in the rankings at the Rivals.com Website, coming in at No. 24. St. John's had been ranked by Rivals.com in the Web site's preseason poll. From the Rivals.com Website, "The Red Storm had another great week and capped it off with a home sweep over West Virginia." View the Rivals.com rankings here.

St. John's also moved up to No. 20 in the Ping! Baseball rankings. From the Web site, "The Red Storm's series sweep over West Virginia was their most impressive weekend of the year. St. John's also beat Fairleigh Dickinson midweek and make a vault up in the standings." View the Ping! Baseball rankings here.

St. John's returns to action with a doubleheader at home against Iona at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6.