There was a Red Storm in Tallahassee on Sunday as St. John’s baseball rained down 18 unanswered runs on Northern Illinois to erase an early deficit and punch their ticket to the Tallahassee Regional Final.
The 21-8 win for St. John’s tied a program record for the largest margin of victory in the NCAA Tournament, and the 21 runs were the second most the Red Storm have scored in a tournament game in program history.
“It’s pretty comforting when you have 20 hits and you score 21 runs. I just told the guys, ‘I hope that we score another 21 in our next game, but we can’t rely on that,’ ” St. John’s coach Mike Hampton said. “We have to be focused and be able to play the game. The guys were ready today.”
Red Storm starter Evan Chaffee gave up five runs in the first three innings, but finished a 5 ¹/₃ -inning outing with a career-high nine strikeouts, allowing five earned runs on five hits in his seventh win of the season.
St. John’s offense backed Chaffee with what is believed to be the most runs in an inning for the program in an NCAA tournament game, scoring nine in the top of the fourth.
Shortstop Rob Mansour drove in the first run of the game for St. John’s and all nine Johnnies starters registered at least a hit, an RBI and a run scored.
The Red Storm tacked on another six runs in the fifth and three runs in the seventh before Northern Illinois finally managed two more in the bottom of the seventh. St John’s added another run in the eighth and two more in the ninth.
“The entire year, the guys in the dugout and the guys on the field have had my back. This isn’t the first time,” Chaffee said.
The trip to the regional final is St. John’s first in more than a decade.
It has been 14 years since the Red Storm last played in a Super Regional.