By Dylan Butler
Instead, No. 22 St. John's capitalized on a mistake in the outfield to scratch across the lone run in a 1-0 victory against Connecticut at Jack Kaiser Stadium. “The way we play right now it's pitching and defense,” Blankmeyer said. “We're going to scrap for some runs, try and hang around and try and find a way to win.”After splitting the first two games of the weekend set, the Red Storm needed what Blankmeyer said was the first 1-0 win in his 13 years at St. John's to win their fourth conference series of the year and improve to 25-8 overall and 9-3 in the Big East. Jared Yecker was hampered with a blister on his pitching hand early in the year, but he was brilliant in six scoreless innings for St. John's, giving up four hits, while striking out six with no walks to improve to 3-0. “UConn always gives us problems,” said Yecker, who had good command of his fastball and was able to throw breaking balls for strikes. “I think the last two years they took series from us. It's a great feeling to finally get a series from them.”Yecker gave up a single to Pat Mahoney to open the seventh inning on his 85th pitch and was pulled for Miguel Valcarrel, who retired all six Huskies he faced. Colin Lynch came in to record his 10th save of the year, good for second in the country. UConn freshman Mike Hashem (1-2), who came into the game with a 1.06 earned run average, deserved better. After giving up a lead-off walk to Gino Matias in the first inning, the freshman left-hander retired the next 12 Red Storm batters. Chris Anninos broke up his no-hit bid in the fifth inning when centerfielder Harold Brantley lost his high fly ball in the overcast sky.”I put my head down and ran,” Anninos said. “I didn't see what happened. Our goal is to hustle. It's a crazy game.”Anninos hustled to second on the play and advanced to third after Hashem unsuccessfully tried to get the out at third on Carlos Del Rosario's attempted sacrifice bunt. Hashem induced Greg Hopkins into a 6-4-3 double play, but Anninos was able to score.The only other hit the struggling St. John's offense was able to record was an infield single by Anninos off reliever David Erickson in the seventh. “I don't think we squared up a ball all day,” Blankmeyer said. “A couple of hard ground balls, but other than that, we didn't put anything hard in the air.”Reach Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at dbutler@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
