The St. John’s softball team will return to Red Storm Field to face Manhattan in a midweek matchup scheduled for April 14. The game, which is set for a 3 p.m. start, follows the team’s recent three-game road trip in the Northeast.
This contest holds significance as St. John’s leads the all-time series against Manhattan with a record of 19-13 and secured a decisive win, 13-5 in five innings, during their last meeting on March 18, 2025.
Fans can watch the game via ESPN+ or follow live statistics on RedStormSports.com. St. John’s enters this matchup after dropping three games to Providence from April 10-12 but saw strong performances from Ana Serafinko, who posted nine strikeouts in her latest outing—her second consecutive appearance with at least eight strikeouts.
Prior to their road trip, the Red Storm notched a shutout victory over Hofstra behind Loreley Francia’s six scoreless innings and nine strikeouts. Offensively, Makenna Meadows contributed two hits and an RBI while Natasha Limbani added an RBI double; Serafinko also earned a save during that game.
Earlier this month, St. John’s took two out of three games at DePaul and recorded an impressive shutout led by Francia’s one-hit pitching performance—the fewest allowed since her no-hitter against Rider last year. Francia recently achieved her collegiate career milestone with her 500th strikeout against Iona on March 25.
Serafinko continues to rank among the nation’s top pitchers this season with national recognition for both her pitching and hitting achievements—including ranking second nationally in strikeouts (214) and leading the BIG EAST conference in several categories such as victories (14), innings pitched (150.1), and complete games (17). She was named BIG EAST Pitcher of the Week for the third time this season after striking out 23 batters across nearly twenty innings against Georgetown while also hitting a grand slam versus Fordham.
Jess Bianco remains an offensive leader for St. John’s with her national ranking of No.41 in hits (58) while topping the BIG EAST standings; London Slade is close behind both in hits (48) and as one of college softball’s toughest players to strike out nationally.
As a team, St. John’s leads its conference in several statistical categories including earned run average (ERA), team strikeouts per seven innings, strikeout-to-walk ratio, WHIP, RPI ranking within their league—and they are among only eight programs nationwide credited with turning a triple play this season.
Manhattan comes into Wednesday’s contest after being no-hit by Siena but features standouts like Natalye Debus—who leads their conference in home runs—and Karissa Spring—who leads it in innings pitched; overall Manhattan ranks highly within its league for home runs and stolen bases per game.
Following this matchup against Manhattan, St John’s will host Creighton at Red Storm Field from April 17-19 for another three-game series.
