When St. John’s and Stony Brook take the field today in the NCAA Super Regionals, they won’t just be representing themselves and their schools. They will be playing on behalf of the entire Northeast, an area not known for college baseball success recently.
“You have all the kids who are considered top talents going down south to play baseball,” St. John’s senior shortstop Matt Wessinger said. “That’s considered the best place to go for baseball. I think this pretty much proves you can play good baseball up in the north regardless of weather.”
The Red Storm begin their best-of-three series 3 p.m. today at No. 13 Arizona in Tucson. They haven’t been out of the regional round since 1980, though they are regulars in the NCAA tournament.
Stony Brook was a Division III program when coach Matt Senk took over 22 years ago and only made the transition to Division I in 2000. The Seawolves start their series against No. 3 LSU at noon today in Baton Rouge, La.
“This is a team that will be very difficult to ever have at Stony Brook again,” Senk said.
As St. John’s coach Ed Blankmeyer has repeatedly said, his team has been continuously “banging on the door” of the Super Regionals. The Red Storm are tied for the eighth-most NCAA tournament appearances in history (34) and have been to six College World Series — but all of those were 1980 and before.
“They used to be a powerhouse back then,” St. John’s pitcher Matt Carasiti said. “There was a lull and now we’ve gotten back to it. I think it’s come full circle.”
— Additional reporting by Zach Braziller