April 21, 2011
QUEENS, N.Y. – St. John’s sophomore RHP Kyle Hansen struck out a career-high and BIG EAST season-high 15 in a complete game shutout of Notre Dame, 6-0, in the opener of a BIG EAST series Thursday afternoon at Jack Kaiser Stadium. The Red Storm improved to 20-13 overall and 9-4 in the league, while the Irish dropped to 14-19-1 and 5-8.
Hansen was almost unhittable and improved to 6-3 on the year. The hard-throwing righty allowed just four hits, including just one after the fourth inning. Hansen struck out the side in the sixth and posted five other innings with two strikeouts. He retired 11 straight at one point and 16 of the final 17 Notre Dame hitters of the game.
Dupra was charged with the loss and dropped to 2-4 on the season. He allowed six runs, five earned, on 11 hits in 7.0 innings of work. Dupra struck out four and walked two.
Rowan Wick and Jeremy Baltz provided most of the damage for St. John’s. Wick went 3-for-4 with a three-run home run in the second and Baltz went 2-for-3 with a two-run shot in the seventh. Jimmy Brennan went 3-for-5 and Joe Panik went 2-for-4 with an RBI triple.
St. John’s jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. After Dupra struck out Paul Karmas to open the frame, Frankie Schwindel reached on catcher’s interference and Sean O’Hare followed with a walk to put two on for Wick. The rookie right fielder followed with a three-run home run into the right centerfield jet stream.
Notre Dame did mount a couple of scoring opportunities in the first and third inning against Hansen. Senior 3B Greg Sherry ripped a one-out double in the opening frame, but Hansen punched out freshman LF Eric Jagielo and freshman 1B Trey Mancini to end the threat. Sophomore C Joe Hudson then led off the third with a single and eventually advanced into scoring position with two outs, but Sherry popped out to end the inning.
The three-run cushion appeared more than enough for Hansen. He retired the next five Irish batters following Jagielo’s leadoff single in the fourth. Hansen actually punched out seven over the first four innings.
Meanwhile, Dupra danced around trouble in the fourth and fifth. St. John’s had runners on the corners with one out in each frame, but the senior got double play groundouts to end each inning.
Hansen continued to cruise. The righty struck out the side in the sixth. He registered 10 strikeouts over the first six innings.
The Red Storm put the game away in the bottom of the seventh inning. Panik laced an RBI triple to make it 4-0 and Baltz hammered a two-run home run to push the lead to 6-0.
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