St. John's baseball captures first Big East Championship in six years

The late spring has typically been quiet around Queens over the last several years but the St. John's baseball team has taken its rightful place right back up at the top of the Big East.

Ever since long-time head coach Ed Blankmeyer left St. John's after the 2019 season, it has been a tough few seasons for the program. Long-time assistant, now head coach, Mike Hampton took over the team right when the COVID-19 pandemic struck and has been building to guide the team back to the high standards established by Blankmeyer.

The 2024 season has been a resurgence for the historic program going 34-16-1 (14-7 Big East) in the regular season, finishing 2nd place in the conference's standings after being picked to finish 6th in the preseason poll.

The breakout season led to Hampton and his staff being named the Big East Coaching Staff of the Year.

It was the highest finish for the Red Storm since 2018 after they won the regular season title, which eventually led to a Big East Tournament Championship. It was last time St. John's won the conference tournament until Saturday.

St. John's went undefeated throughout the weekend with wins over Georgetown, Xavier, and the Hoyas once again to clinch the team's 10th Big East crown, the most in conference history, and will be heading to the NCAA Tournament.

Sophomore catcher Jimmy Keenan has been writing himself into St. John's baseball lore this weekend with a pair of late-game home runs to advance the Red Storm.

The All-Conference First Teamer hit a walk-off homer in the 9th inning in Game 1 on Wednesday to defeat Georgetown, 11-9, and then produced more magic the next night with a 2-run shot to left field in the 8th inning to take down Xavier, 8-7.

In total, he had a .500 batting average with the pair of homers and six runs batted in for the weekend.

St. John's would score on an RBI groundout, walk, sacrifice fly, and RBI fielder's choice. Unorthodox, but they would take runs however they could get them as they took down Georgetown, 4-2, to win the Big East Title.

Starter Evan Chaffee pitched six innings, allowing two hits and one run while striking out seven batters. Xavier Kolhosser, typically the team's Friday night starter, would come out of the bullpen for the final three innings, allowing just one hit and run with a strikeout.

It was the final of a long stretch of games between the Johnnies and the Hoyas after Georgetown took two of three games over the Red Storm in the final regular season series last weekend, but it was St. John's who got the last laugh.

St. John's earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will play No. 2 seed Mississippi State in the Charlottesville Regional. Virginia (No. 1 seed) and UPenn (No. 4 seed) are the other teams in the region.

First pitch between the Red Storm and Bulldogs is slated for 7:00 p.m. ET (ESPN+) on Friday night.