Marshall's Patrick Copen pitches as the Herd takes on St. John’s during an NCAA baseball game on Saturday, March 4, 2023, at the YMCA Kennedy Center in Huntington.
Marshall's Gio Ferraro, left, and Christian Lucio, right, celebrate after a double play as the Herd takes on St. John’s during an NCAA baseball game on Saturday, March 4, 2023, at the YMCA Kennedy Center in Huntington.
Marshall's Patrick Copen pitches as the Herd takes on St. John’s during an NCAA baseball game on Saturday, March 4, 2023, at the YMCA Kennedy Center in Huntington.
Marshall's Gio Ferraro, left, and Christian Lucio, right, celebrate after a double play as the Herd takes on St. John’s during an NCAA baseball game on Saturday, March 4, 2023, at the YMCA Kennedy Center in Huntington.
HUNTINGTON — High winds knocked out electricity at George Smailes Field Saturday, but the St. John’s baseball team provided its own power.
The Red Storm (5-3) hit three home runs in an 8-4 victory over Marshall at the field at the YMCA Kennedy Center. The dingers accounted for four runs and were supplemented by nine walks that produced five runs.
“To me, the story of today’s game, is, they scored eight runs and five of the eight runs that scored, we walked them on base,” Thundering Herd coach Greg Beals said. “That facilitates their offense. They hit three home runs. Fine. If they hit three solo home runs, we don’t lose today.”
Marty Higgins and Paul Orbon smashed homers to left off reliever Bryce Blevins, a freshman from Louisa, Kentucky, in the sixth inning. Tate Ballestero mashed a homer to right and off a car in the parking lot in the eighth.
The blasts helped St. John’s erase a 1-0 deficit after one inning, the run produced when Owen Ayers drew a bases-loaded walk to plate Luke Edwards.
The Red Storm scored twice in the second, but Marshall (4-3) answered with two in the third, one on a homer by Gabriel Cabrera and the other on a single by Gio Ferraro to score Ayers.
St. John’s tied it in the fourth when Jace Jeremiah doubled home Austin Machado, who had walked.
The Red Storm added four more runs for an 8-3 lead before Ayers homered to right in the eighth.
Herd starter Patrick Copen struck out a career-high 10 in 4 2-3 innings before giving way to Blevins (1-1), who took the loss.
“Pat’s got great stuff and he can strike guys out with that stuff,” Beals said. “He’s got to throw more strikes than he did.”
Nick Cireli (1-0) hurled 6 1-3 innings of relief to earn the win. Higgins went 2 for 4 with two runs batted in. Kevin Michaels walked four times.
For Marshall, Ayers was 2 for 3 with two RBI.
The team play a doubleheader at 1 p.m. Saturday at GoMart Ballpark in Charleston. Bels told his team to put Saturday’s loss behind it.
“That’s what you have to do,” Beals said. “That’s the beauty of baseball, you get a game again tomorrow. We lost a Friday game last week and responded very well Saturday with a win. I challenged the guys to do that again tomorrow.”
Tim Stephens is a sports writer with The Herald-Dispatch.
