By Dylan Butler
In preparation for its tough league schedule, St. John’s softball coach Melody Cope has assembled the most difficult non-league schedule in program history.
Before playing one conference foe, the Red Storm have already faced three teams who advanced to the NCAA tournament last year, including perennial powerhouse UCLA which played in the Women’s College World Series.
The Red Storm went 2-1 in those three games, giving Cope confidence heading into Saturday’s Big East opener at Rutgers.
“In the past we’d step on the field defeated in a sense,” said Cope, who enters her fourth year at the helm. “Now when we go into a Big East game, it will be just another game.”
The good news for Cope is that former Mary Louis standout Courtney Fitzgerald is back on the mound after missing last season with wrist surgery. The bad news is that sophomore Meghan Allman, who pitched 331 of the Red Storm’s 359.1 innings last year and had a 1.90 earned run average, is still recovering from offseason surgery.
Allman pitched four innings Saturday and likely won’t be 100 percent until the middle of April when St. John’s will have a dominating 1-2 punch.
Until then, freshman Melanie Lehman, part of an impressive recruiting class, will finish Allman’s games.
Three other freshmen, Megan Oliver (third base), Jo Sherlock (center field) and Jessica Marcial (right field) will be part of the starting lineup.
“The fact that we have more than one pitcher to put on the mound this year is a huge advantage,” Cope said. “The freshman we have this year have come out of very good programs so we should be much better rounded this year.”
Among the returnees are four-year starters Jessica Shepherd (shortstop) and Alesha Argeras (second base), as well as sophomores Allina Sainz (first base) and catcher Jillian Sandoval.
The Red Storm, who are 11-13 this season, is again struggling at the plate with a team batting average a shade above .200.
But St. John’s, which was picked to finish seventh out of the 11 Big East teams by the conference coaches, has shown signs of breaking out of its hitting slide, including a pair of home runs by Argeras and one long ball by Sainz as the Red Storm captured the SJU Tournament championship last weekend.
“We’re a step above where we were last year at this point,” Cope said.
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
