Kevin Fountain, Athletic Communications (Photo Courtesy of St. John’s Athletics)
BOX SCORE: St. John’s vs. UMKC
BOX SCORE: St. John’s vs. Arkansas
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The St. John’s softball team (3-4) opened up the Arkansas Invitational with an 11-4 win over UMKC on Friday night before falling to host-Arkansas, 6-1, to split a pair of games to open the two-day weekend.
Freshman Brittany Garcia had an impressive collegiate debut for the Red Storm, going 2-for-4 with a walk and a hit in her first collegiate at bat on Friday. Ellen Czuba finished the day going 4-for-8 with three RBI and a stolen base for St. John’s.
Game One: St. John’s 11, UMKC 4
The Red Storm wasted no time getting on the board as the freshmen duo of Lexi Robles and Monique Landini opened the game with a single and double, respectively, before Erin Burner blasted an RBI single into right and Jackie Reed sent Landini home on a sac fly to give St. John’s the early 2-0 advantage.
After a quiet top of the second, the Red Storm continued its offense in the third, posting three runs thanks to a Czuba RBI single, a pair of hit batters, a walk and a Kangaroo error, to take a 5-0 lead.
With one out and Reed on first, Kaitlin Fitzgerald blasted her first collegiate double into the left-center gap, putting another run on the board for the Red Storm in the top of the fourth. After a quick out, Czuba stepped up once again for the Red Storm, sending an RBI single into center to plate Fitzgerald and put St. John’s on top 7-0. The scoring would continue with the help of the fourth `Roo error of the game to give the Red Storm the 8-0 advantage.
Thanks to a one-out triple by Burner in the fifth, Fitzgerald was able to pick up her second RBI of the game with a sac fly to right to give the Red Storm a 9-0 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth.
Only three outs away from sealing the five-inning victory, the `Roos capitalized on three walks before Caitlin Christopher sent a 2-0 pitch deep over the right-center fence for a grand slam to cut the Red Storm lead to 9-4.
The Red Storm would get its revenge, however, in the top of the seventh with a one-out double by Burner and a two-run blast by Reed to give St. John’s the eventual 11-4 victory.
Tori Free (3-2) earned the win after 4.1 innings of work, allowing only four hits while striking out four along the way. Freshman Grace Kramer came in and shut down the UMKC offense, throwing 2.2 innings of relief while allowing only one hit and struck out four batters.
Game Two Recap: Arkansas 8, St. John’s 1
After allowing three runs in the bottom of the first, the Red Storm rallied back in the top of the second with a run of its own after capitalizing on a Razorback error as Czuba sent an RBI single up the middle to cut the Arkansas lead to 3-1.
Arkansas was not finished, however, as it posted up three more runs in the bottom of the third to extend the lead back to 6-1 heading into the fourth. From that point on, the Red Storm was unable to manufacture any more runs as the Razorbacks put on another pair of runs in the sixth to take an 8-1 victory.
Fran Carrullo (0-1) took the loss for the Red Storm after throwing a complete game, allowing seven earned runs on six hits.
The Red Storm will round out action at the Arkansas Invitational on Saturday with a game against Jackson State at noon before a tournament-ending rematch with Arkansas at 5 p.m.
For all the latest news on the St. John’s softball team, log on to RedStormSports.com and follow the team (@StJohnsSoftball) on Twitter. You can join the conversation with #SJUSB. If you would like to be added to the St. John’s softball mailing list, send an email to stjcommunications@stjohns.edu with the subject line “Softball Mailing List”.
