Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
St John's
Northwestern Storms Past St. John's, 18-12
2/23/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 23, 2003
St. John's Box Score in PDF Format
MOBILE, Ala. - Northwestern took advantage of seven St. John's errors, scoring 18 runs, including eight unearned runs, on 10 hits en route to an 18-12 win against the Red Storm on Sunday at the South Alabama Coca Cola Classic. After posting a 2-1 mark this weekend, NU improved its overall record to 4-1, the exact opposite of last year's record (1-4) through five games.
The floodgates burst open for Northwestern when David Gresky (North Royalton, Ohio/St. Ignatius) cranked a two-run home run in the bottom of the second off of junior starter Joe Reid, cutting the St. John's lead to 8-5. It was Gresky's second homer in as many days.
Reid was relieved by freshman Anthony Varvaro in the third, and Northwestern took advantage of four St. John's errors, scoring eight runs to take a 13-8 lead.
The Red Storm cut the lead to one with four runs in the top of the fourth. Bravo hit a one-out double and scored on a triple to the corner in right by junior Mike Rozema. A single from Downs scored Rozema and, after walks to Graiser and Cirigliano, and Thomson cut the lead one with a two-run single.
A three-run home run by Travis Tharp (Boulder, Colo./Boulder) in the fifth, and a two-run shot in the seventh by Ken Padgett (Littleton, Colo./Araphoe) gave the Wildcats an 18-12 lead after seven innings, when the game was called due to travel arrangements for both teams.
After Northwestern scored three runs in the bottom of the first, the Red Storm erupted for eight runs in the top of the second. Sophomore Jim Martin got things going with a leadoff home run to right. A walk to junior Jesus Bravo and a single from junior Mike Rozema put runners on the corners and senior Ray Downs sent a three-run shot to left, giving St. John's a 5-3 lead. Senior Billy Graiser walked, stole second and scored when senior infielder J.P. Cirigliano reached on an error. Cirigliano, who moved to second on the error, scored on a single by freshman left fielder Greg Thomson and junior Anthony DeRosa drove in the final run of the inning with a double, giving St. John's an 8-3 lead.
NU returns to action Feb. 28-Mar. 2 at the Troy State Wire Graph Classic in Dothan, Ala.
