Late homer lifts St. John’s over #1 UVa.

Edited by Chris Graham
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St. John’s defeated Virginia 6-5 Sunday night in game six of the Charlottesville Regional and forced a decisive game on Monday. The teams will meet at 6 p.m. on Monday for a berth in the NCAA Super Regionals.

Jeremy Baltz hit two home runs, including a go-ahead blast with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, to lift the Red Storm to the win. Baltz went 2-for-4 in the game and drove in four runs.

St. John’s (43-19) broke open the scoring in the bottom of the second. Jimmy Parque singled and Greg Hopkins followed with a tow-run homer to right to give the Red Storm a 2-0 lead.

Virginia (49-12) took the lead, 5-2, in the top of the fourth. Jarrett Parker tied the game with his two-run homer to right. John Hicks followed with a double and scored as Tyler Cannon’s grounder was booted by the second baseman. Walks to John Barr and Phil Gosselin loaded the bases for Keith Werman, who singled in a pair of runs.

The Red Storm cut the lead to one run, 5-4, in the bottom of the fourth on Jeremy Baltz’s two-run homer to right.

St. John’s retook the lead in the bottom of the eighth. Baltz’s second homer of the game, a two-out two-run shot, gave the Red Storm at 6-5 lead.

The Cavaliers were led offensively by Parker, who went 2-for-4 with two RBIs, and Hicks, who went 2-for-3.

Kevin Kilpatrick, who pitched 5.1 innings of shutout relief picked up the win for St. John’s, improving to 2-1. Tyler Wilson took the loss for Virginia, falling to 8-4.