St. John's baseball, with 14 Long Island players, will face Alabama in NCAA Super Regional
St. John's pitcher Victor Frederick, a Northport product who attended St. Dominic High School, was Newsday’s Catholic High School Player of the Year in 2023 and 2024. Credit: St. John's Athletics/Phil Kelly
Victor Frederick’s final pitch on Monday for St. John’s went for a called third strike and set off the most dramatic moment thus far in what has been a wild 2026 NCAA Tournament.
The Red Storm raced from their positions in the field and their dugout toward the mound at Florida State’s Dick Howser Stadium to celebrate. The Red Storm had beaten overall No. 10 seed Florida State, 5-4, to complete a three-game sweep of the double-elimination Tallahassee Regional.
“I don’t even know what to compare that feeling in that moment to,” Fredrick, a Northport product who attended St. Dominic High and was Newsday’s 2023 and 2024 Catholic School Player of the Year, said in a telephone interview. “In the regional and in front of all those fans? It was unlike anything I’ve experienced.”
Don’t tell this St. John’s team — which has a distinct local flavor with 14 players from Long Island and numerous Newsday All-Long Island selections — but it might be the biggest Cinderella story in a historic NCAA Tournament.
Of the top 16 seeds, all designated to host a regional, seven have been eliminated including No. 1 UCLA and No. 2 Georgia Tech. Only 13 programs have reached the Super Regional round from the bottom line of the four-team regionals. St. John’s — along with Little Rock (39-26) — is part of the first tournament in which two advanced.
One ought never use the word “impossible” in college sports, but the word “improbable” is more than fitting to describe the scene that unfolded Monday.
This was the same St. John’s team that fell to 1-10 after a loss at Penn State on March 4, the same Red Storm team tabbed as the lowest seed at the four-team regional, posting a second one-run win over host Florida State in four days and capturing one of the 16 spots in the Super Regional round.
From left: St. John's baseball players Shaun McMillan, a Freeport product, and Will Cowan, an Albertson product. Credit: St. John's Athletics/Phil Kelly
The Red Storm (36-24), winners of 35 of their last 49 games and all six of their postseason contests — including a sweep in the Big East Tournament — will meet seventh-seeded Alabama in Game 1 of the best-of-three Super Regional at the Crimson Tide’s Sewell-Thomas Stadium on Saturday night.
It will be St. John’s first appearance in the final 16 since 2012. The Red Storm are two wins away from going to Omaha, Nebraska, for the College World Series for the first time since 1980.
“This weekend is going to be awesome — playing in the regional last weekend, we just got a taste of playing postseason baseball in a really tough environment,” said first baseman and No. 3 hitter Shaun McMillan, who is from Freeport, who has a .318/.400/.498 slash line this season. “We’ve seen it’s different from a regular season in the Northeast. The crowds are way more into it, there’s more pressure and the stakes are higher. It requires a focus and effort.”
While there are plenty of theories between coach Mike Hampton, a Seaford resident, and the players about how St. John’s turned around its season, getting more out of the lineup and self-belief keep coming up.
“It obviously wasn’t the start we wanted [and] we were playing as individuals and not as a team,” said DH and No. 5 hitter Will Cowan, an Albertson product who played for Kellenberg. “We [galvanized] around an idea we were going to do this for each other. We started playing more as a team . . . and got results.”
“The early competition we set up was very tough and we were in close games, and some players might have started to press,” Hampton said. “We knew we had a talented team . . . We don’t rely on the three-run homer. We needed to be a team offense and not be nine individuals . . . They adjusted.
“St. John’s wants people who are hard-nosed and play hard, and that’s who they’ve been.”
The Red Storm rolled once they entered Big East play. They didn’t lose any three-game series to a conference foe, then outscored teams in the conference tournament 26-11 — with Cowan hitting .500 with two home runs and seven RBIs — to earn the Big East’s automatic bid.
Catcher Adam Agresti’s grand slam in the regional clincher might have been the biggest hit of the season — so far.
Statistically from top-to-bottom, the Red Storm look out of place in the 16-team Super Regional round.
Their average of 6.4 runs ranks 15th and their .282 batting average 14th. The team ERA of 5.36 is 15th and the .286 opponents’ batting average ranks dead last.
Grit, self-belief and momentum don’t appear in the boxscore, though. St. John’s possesses an abundance of all three after six consecutive postseason wins.
Looking back at the 1-10 start, McMillan said, “I wouldn’t say that I was expecting it to happen. It was definitely a difficult time . . . We all knew that we had the talent on the team to go as far as we have so far.”
And, as intimidating as it may seem, the Red Storm aren’t looking at a three-game series with the Tide as daunting. They see what they saw when they went to face Florida State.
“We didn’t look at that as [intimidating]. We looked at it as an opportunity,” Frederick said. “Now we have another one.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
