USF Baseball Takes on St. Johns

USF baseball, 29-16 (12-6), currently sit in third place as they travel to New York to take on Big East leading St. John's for a 3-game series.

SJU, 29-16 (14-4) is 13-4 at home this year and sits atop the conference.  They are looking to defend their position as the Bulls look to take a few games away on the road late in the year and try to take their first ever Big East title (first pitch tonight is scheduled for 6PM, the game on Saturday begins at 1PM, and the final game on Sunday begins at noon).

SJU is led by senior 2B/SS Matt Wessinger (6-0 180-pounds) who is batting .362 on the year with 6 home runs and 44 RBIs, he also has 26 steals to lead the Red Storm (huge numbers from him).  Sophomore catcher/1B Frank Schwindel (6-1 195-pounds) is batting .325 with 4 home runs and has 23 RBIs. Junior 3B Sean O'Hare is batting .321 with 11 doubles, 3 home runs, and has 33 RBIs.  Junior outfielder Jeremy Baltz (6-3 205-pounds) is batting .316 with 5 home runs and 42 RBIs.  Junior infielder Pat Talbat (6-2 180-pounds) is batting .293 with 24 RBIs.  This is a very dangerous batting order that can hit for tons of power and gets production from everyone in the order.  The Bulls pitching staff will face a tough challenge in these 3-games.  Barbosa and Stultz have been great for the Bulls and the bullpen has been clutch.  Joey Lovecchio has struggled recently and will need to find better command or this lineup could make for some long games.

The SJU pitching staff is led by junior LHP Sean Hagan (6-6 225-pounds) who is 5-2 on the year with a 3.29 ERA.  Hagan has pitched 63 innings, allowing 62 hits, 13 walks, and has struck out 43 batters (.247 batting average against him).  Junior RHP Matt Carasiti (6-3 200-pounds) is 4-2 with a 3.71 ERA.  He has pitched 51 innings, allowing 53 hits, 22 walks, and has struck out 43 (.269 batting average against him).   Sophomore RHP James Lomangino (6-0 205-pounds) is 1-1 with 6 saves while working 21 innings, allowing 27 hits, 6 walks, and has struck out 30 batters.  Senior LHP Kevin Kilpatrick (6-2 195-pounds) is 1-0 with 3 saves while tossing 35.1 innings, allowing 34 hits, 8 walks, and has struck out 23 batters. The major stat to note with this pitching staff is the number of hits each pitcher is allowing.  Hagan, one of their top starters, has allowed 62 hits in 63 innings (easy math).  The Bulls should be able to get quite a few hits in this series, making for a lot of runs.  The Bulls power hitters (Brazeal, Rockhold, Ramsay, and Longley), have to get these base runners in.

This is a critical series for the Bulls.  After dropping two games over the weekend to Villanova, the team fell out of first place and now has to make up some ground as the season comes to an end.  Taking two out of three against the Red Storm would make for a great weekend.