But then the Red Storm players gathered in the athletic trainer’s room in the basement to find out…
By Dylan Butler
The St. John’s baseball team met at Alumni Hall at 10 a.m. Monday for some light running and lifting, just as it had every other Monday of the season.
But then the Red Storm players gathered in the athletic trainer’s room in the basement to find out their fate, to find out if they will play any more baseball this season.
At about 12:15 p.m. a loud cheer echoed throughout the empty building as St. John’s learned it was selected as an at-large bid for the 64-team NCAA Division I baseball tournament during the live selection show on ESPN2.
The Red Storm (36-21), seeded third, will face No. 2 Long Beach State (36-19) at Stanford University in a first-round game of the Palo Alto Regional Friday at 5 p.m. Top-seeded and host Stanford faces No. 4 University of Nevada-Las Vegas in the other first-round game of the double-elimination tournament.
“It was joy, the relief of anxiously waiting, jubilation. We ran the gamut of emotions,” said St. John’s coach Ed Blankmeyer. “We’ve been batting throughout the season, and these kids basically earned it. Everyone overlooked us all year, but thank God when it mattered most we weren’t overlooked.”
It is the first-ever at-large bid for the St. John’s baseball program and first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 1997, when the Red Storm won the Big East tournament and received an automatic bid.
St. John’s, which has made six College World Series appearances, is 52-49 all-time in the NCAA tournament.
Long Beach State features the nation’s top pitcher in righty Jered Weaver, who is 14-1 with a 1.68 earned run average and is among the leaders in team ERA (3.09) and fielding percentage (.977).
The 49’ers will likely save Weaver, whose older brother Jeff was a member of the Yankees, for a possible NCAA tournament rematch with No. 1 Stanford, should both teams win their first-round games.
“They can throw whoever they want. We don’t care who they throw,” Blankmeyer said. “There are quality pitchers after Weaver, but we’re just going to show up and play baseball.”
Blankmeyer hasn’t decided who will start against Long Beach State, but it will either be sophomore righty Anthony Varvaro (8-3, 3.08 ERA) or freshman lefty Matt Tosoni (5-1, 2.91 ERA). Tosoni would be the likely choice since Long Beach State, the Big West runners-up, are 6-8 vs. lefties this year.
Reach Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
