The last time St. John’s advanced past the NCAA Regionals, there was no such thing as a Super Regional. The year was 1980 and John Franco led the then-Redmen to the College World Series.
This current group put itself in the history books last night.
Frank Schwindel went 5-for-5 as St John’s beat top-seed and host North Carolina, 9-5, in the Chapel Hill Regional finals, ending the program’s 32-year drought.
The goal the No. 3 Red Storm set in the preseason was realized with two victories in two days over UNC, which came in ranked No. 6 in the country by Baseball America. The Tar Heels had won 16 straight home regional games before Saturday.
“We’ve been knocking on the door for years,” St. John’s coach Ed Blankmeyer said.
Kyle Richardson and Matt Wessinger each had two hits and Sean O’Hare had two RBIs for St. John’s (40-21), which will play Arizona in the Super Regionals starting Friday.
Danny Bethea’s three-run, walk-off home run Saturday, which Blankmeyer called possibly the biggest homer in St. John’s history, forced North Carolina (46-16) to have to come back and beat the Red Storm twice to win the regional in the double-elimination format.
“Today they were beaten,” Blankmeyer said of UNC. “The team that was the best club today was us. There was no fluke.”
Stony Brook 12, UCF 5
Maxx Tissenbaum had two hits, two RBIs and scored two runs and Jasvir Rakkar allowed four runs in six innings as No. 4 Stony Brook beat No. 3 Central Florida in the Coral Gables (Fla.) Regional to force a final game tonight at 7.
Earlier, Stony Brook (49-12) became the first America East team to reach a regional final with a come-from-behind, 10-7 win over No. 2 Missouri State. Kevin Courtney doubled twice and drove in three runs in a seven-run seventh for the Seawolves, who have won 25 of their last 27 games.
Additional reporting by Zach Braziller