I took in the St. John’s vs Holy Cross matchup on Sunday afternoon in Worcester Massachusetts. The Red Storm were able to come away with a 8-2 victory over the Crusaders behind a solid start from Brendan Lobban who gave up two runs in the first inning before settling down. He ended up pitching six innings scattering six hits while giving up only those two first inning runs.
The Red Storm got an outstanding performance from Joe Panik and Jeremy Baltz. Panik went 2-4 with an RBI while playing an outstanding defensive shortstop during the game. Baltz also had a strong game going 2-5 with three RBI including his first homer of the season after hitting 24 homers last season.
I was able to catch up to St. John’s head coach Ed Blankmeyer to discuss his team’s progress on the year while getting his thoughts on some of the players.
Joe Panik is considered one of the top shortstops in the nation for the 2011 MLB Draft. He was rated as the 24th best prospect this past summer in the Cape Cod Baseball League. CBD also rated him as the 81st best player in the country during the 2011 Top 100 Countdown. Here is some good video from the game that I captured.
They also have one of the top outfielders in the country for the 2012 MLB Draft in Jeremy Baltz who went 2-5 with three RBI while hitting his first homer of the season. In his freshman campaign in 2010, he hit 24 homers while being named a consensus All-American and being named Freshman Hitter of the year by the NCBWA.
I was able to capture the eighth inning from Matt Carasiti who will be playing this summer in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox. In this game, he was sitting 92-93 MPH and was showing an excellent slider.
