Late Homer Lifts St. John's Over Virginia 6-5

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CHARLOTTESVILLE – 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.

Tickets remain available for the Monday game and may be purchased in person at the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office in Bryant Hall, by calling the Ticket Office at (800) 542-8821 or logging on to VirginiaSports.com. Single-session tickets are $8 for general admission, with $4 per ticket upgrades available from general admission to reserved on game day.

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.