When Mike Hampton picked up his phone, there were over 1,000 congratulatory text messages.
Friends, family members and a litany of legendary former St. John’s players had reached out, from John Franco and Rich Aurilia to Joe Panik and C.J. Nitkowski after St. John’s won the Big East Tournament.
It was a reminder of what this program means to so many, and Hampton was thrilled to be the leader of the group that had restored the pride.
“You play for your program, you play for the history that you’ve had in the program,” the coach said Monday, after his team was sent to the Charlottesville Regional, where third-seeded St. John’s will meet No. 2 Mississippi State in its first NCAA Tournament game since 2018 on Friday night. “It means a lot for this group, it means a lot for me to bring the program back to where I feel it needs to be.”
It has been a memorable year for Hampton.
After 19 seasons as Ed Blankmeyer’s assistant, he took over in 2020 when Blankmeyer took a job with the Mets. But 14 games in, his first season was over. COVID-19 hit. The next few years were difficult, the Johnnies going a combined 25-40-1 in league play. Injuries ruined promising springs, a total of 13 different players needing Tommy John surgery.
Even this year’s team hasn’t been immune. Catcher Adam Agresti, who was expected to be one of St. John’s top hitters, and No. 2 starter Joe Mascio suffered season-ending injuries early on.
But compared to the recent past, Hampton’s team has been relatively healthy. The results have been there. It started with a season-opening win over SEC powerhouse Florida that set the tone for a 37-win regular season, the program’s most since 2018. That was also the last year it reached the NCAA Tournament.
Sophomore Jimmy Keenan emerged as one of the top power hitters in the Big East, Mario Pesca became a stalwart atop the pitching staff and outfielder Garrett Scavelli was a great find in the transfer portal, a .330 hitter coming from Division II Molloy College. The pitching staff is deep, which was clear in St. John’s 3-0 performance in the Big East Tournament.
“I go back to that first dinner we had back in January in Long Island City,” athletic director Mike Cragg recalled, referring to the annual Bullpen Winter Banquet fundraiser. “The vibe in the room, the energy in the room, you could feel a different tone they had set during the fall. They were healthy. I felt there was something different about this team. It turned out to be true.”
As the losses piled up in recent seasons, there had begun to be grumbling among the program’s proud alumni base, questioning if Hampton was up to the job. There were other strong coaches in the area he could’ve pursued, but Cragg believed in Hampton and felt it was just a matter of improved health and the Johnnies’ recent bad luck to turn for winning to follow.
The coach didn’t worry about the noise. He didn’t enter the year feeling like it was a make-or-break season. That was out of his control. He had spent his life winning baseball games — first as a player and later as a coach.
“If you think about that, it’s going to drive you crazy,” Hampton said. “I knew that we needed to be better. There were reasons for us not having the success we had in the past.
He added: “It was very hard. I was hired because I’ve always been a winner. That’s something that I expect.”
It finally happened this year for Hampton and St. John’s. But the Red Storm (37-16-1) isn’t finished. They believe they are capable of accomplishing even more, starting Friday night in Charlottesville in the double-elimination four-team regional that includes host Virginia, the 12th-overall seed in the tournament.
“For myself and other guys, we came here because of the St. John’s program’s winning tradition and what we’ve done in the past,” said Keenan, a White Plains native and All-Big East first-team selection. “To be part of a team that brought the program back is definitely a really special thing.”
“We have the confidence,” he added, “to beat anyone in the country.”
LIU was the other local team selected to the NCAA Tournament. The Sharks received an automatic bid after winning the NEC Tournament. They will face overall No. 4 seed North Carolina in the Chapel Hill Regional on Friday at 6 p.m. LSU and Wofford are the other two teams in the regional.
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