Blue Demons Sweep St. John's

DePaul 7, St. John's 0

DePaul 9, St. John's 1 (5 innings)

QUEENS, NY – The DePaul softball team clinched a spot in the 2006 BIG EAST Softball Championship Saturday by sweeping St. John's at Red Storm Field.  The Blue Demons shutout the Red Storm 7-0 in the first game and won the second game 9-1 in five innings. The wins improve the Blue Demons to 30-21 and 11-9 in BIG EAST play, while St. John's falls to 27-27 and 8-12 in the league.

Junior Kate Sheaks, sophomore Sandy Vojik and Jackie Tarulli-Fisher all posted multiple hits and RBI on the day for the Blue Demons.

DePaul freshman starter Stephanie Blagaich (12-5) and senior reliever Leslie Scott combined for a two-hit shutout in game one.  Blagaich allowed just one hit and stuck out one in six innings of work.  Scott entered the game in the seventh and gave up one hit.  The combined shutout is the fourth for Blagaich and fifth for Scott.

The Blue Demons and Red Storm battled through five scoreless innings, before DePaul posted four runs in the top of the sixth. The Blue Demons used three hits and took advantage of two St. John's errors to take their commanding lead.

Freshman Amber Patton posted DePaul's first run of the ballgame on Sheaks RBI-single to center field.  Blagaich helped her own cause and knocked a RBI-single to left field to give the Bleu Demons a 2-0 advantage.  Sheaks and Blagaich each crossed the plate on separate Red Storm errors.

The Blue Demons added three runs in the top of the seventh.  After back-to-back single to right field by junior Linda Secka and Sheaks; junior Jessica Evans put an exclamation on the Blue Demon's offense by pounding a  RBI double to left field to plate the Blue Demons' final run of the ballgame.

Lisa Greer threw a complete game, but suffered the loss for St. John's. Greer gave up eight hits and struck out four.

The Blue Demon offense picked-up where it left off in the second game and scattered nine hits on the way to a 9-1 victory.

Tarulli-Fisher connected on her ninth home run of the season to give the Blue Demons a 2-0 lead in the top of the third.  Following the home run DePaul posted two runs on two hits and a Red Storm throwing error.  With runners on first and third DePaul head coach Eugene Lenti called for a double steal and a throwing error by the St. John's catcher allowed both runners to score.

The Blue Demons tacked on three runs in the fourth frame.  With runners on first and second, Vojik connected on a RBI-single to center field. Two batters and outs later, Secka knocked a single to center and found herself in a run down heading into second.  It took St. John's four throws to get Secka out, but not before Vojik and senior Sara Bandauski crossed the plate.

Junior Kara Amundson gave the Blue Demons a 8-0 lead a base knock that pushed Kate Sheaks across the plate.  Two batters later Vojik was credited with her second RBI of the afternoon when she knocked in pinch hitter Cara Santori on a single down the left field line.

St. John's lone run of the day came in the bottom of the fifth inning on Loren Anguiano's RBI-single up the middle. 

Junior Tracie Adix (10-8) earned the win for the Blue Demons and gave up no earned runs.  Adix scattered five hits and struck out two.

Greer (13-11) took the loss again for the Red Storm. Greer threw 2.1 innings before being relieved by Kimberly Lerch and Jessica Foley.

The Blue Demons will travel to New Jersey to play a doubleheader with Seton Hall on Sunday, game one is scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m.

DePaul needs to win one game on Sunday to secure the No. 5 seed in the BIG EAST Championship next week in South Bend, Indiana. Seedings and game times will be announced by the conference office on Sunday evening.  

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