May 21, 1981

Baseball

St. John's - 1 Yale - 0

Twenty-eight years ago today, St. John's defeated Yale 1-0 in 12 innings in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at New Haven, Connecticut. The game would go down as one of the besting pitching duels in College Baseball history.

The Elis' Ron Darling had a no-hitter through 11 innings, naturally a tournament record. Junior Frank Viola pitched 11 scoreless innings for the Redmen allowing seven hits. In the top of the 12th, St. John's second baseman Steve Scafa broke the no-no with a lead-off single off Darling. Scafa would steal second and third base. He would remain at third as an infield error allowed the Redmen to have runners on first and third with two outs. Scafa would complete the trifecta stealing home on a delayed double steal, plating the only run of the game.

Freshman reliever Eric Stampfl earned the save, retiring the home team quietly in the bottom of the 12th. St. John's (32-2) advanced to play Maine in the second round of the Northeast regional.

''I'll meet people who will say, 'Yeah, you were the St. John's pitcher in that game Darling pitched,' '' Viola recalled years later. 

Viola, the crafty lefty from East Meadow who struck out eight batters, improved to his record to 10-0 and won his 18th straight game for St. John's. Darling (9-4) fanned 16 Redmen and ran his consecutive complete games streak to 25.

''It was a great thing, especially at Yale,'' Darling also recalled. ''Baseball there is the kind of thing where once in a while, if you didn't have something else to do on a Saturday afternoon, you came out to a game. That day there were 3,500 people at this tiny field, and it was a Ron Guidry-type thing. They were clapping and cheering for me every time I had two strikes on a batter.''