Baseball Falls to St. John's, 5-1

(boxscore)

5/10/06 -- Junior Robbie Rowen (Rosendale, N.Y.) continued his torrid hitting with a 2-for-4 performance at the plate but it was not enough as Long Island fell to St. John’s, 5-1, in non-conference collegiate baseball action on Wednesday afternoon.

Rowen, the reigning Northeast Conference Player of the Week, is batting .522 (12-for-23) over his last six contests. He notched his sixth double of the season in the fifth inning and followed it up with an opposite field single in the seventh.

On the season, the third baseman is hitting .298 and leads the squad in both doubles and runs batted in (21).

St. John’s controlled the game from the get-go, scoring a run in the second and another in the third to take the lead. Two more runs on three hits in the fifth pushed the Red Storm advantage to 4-0.

The Blackbirds got on the board in the top of the sixth. Sophomore Bryan Burke (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) reached with a one-out, infield single to shortstop. Senior shortstop Sean Durkin (Damascus, Md.) followed with a single to right field. On the return toss to second base, the right fielder’s throw was off the mark allowing Burke to score and Durkin to move into scoring position.

No further damage was done, however, as St. John’s hurler George Brown got the final two outs of the frame. Brown went six innings, allowing three hits and a single unearned run to pick up the victory.

Freshman John Massoni (Staten Island, N.Y.) pitched seven innings, the longest outing of his career, and gave up five runs as he suffered his second loss of the season. Senior Pete Orsi (Brooklyn, N.Y.) built on his record-setting single season total of games pitched, throwing a scoreless ninth in his 21st appearance of the year.

Long Island continues NEC play on Saturday, May 13 with a road doubleheader at Wagner beginning at 12:00 p.m.