By TOM ZEBOLD

USF Senior Writer

The Bulls certainly made first-place St. John's sweat in a series that was decided in the final at-bat Sunday afternoon in New York.

Frank Schwindel's walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth helped the Red Storm escape with a 5-4 victory after USF scored two runs in the top half of the inning to tie the game. USF (30-18, 13-8) now trails the Red Storm by three games atop the Big East standings after what shaped up to be nail-biter in the late innings of the series finale.

Luis Llerena led off the ninth with a double and Alex Mendez singled to put runners on the corners for the Bulls. James Ramsay produced an RBI single and Mendez wound up tying the game up by scoring on a wild pitch with two outs.

St. John's (31-17, 16-5) bounced back quickly in the bottom half of the inning when Pat Talbut led off with a single and made it to second on a wild pitch by Austin Adams (1-2). Schwindel came up with one out and singled to left-center that kept the Red Storm's season-long streak of Big East series victories intact.

USF's Derrick Stultz kept his own streak of solid starts going by giving up two runs on six hits in six innings of work. The senior right-hander struck out three, walked one and exited with the game tied at 2.

St. John's grabbed a 4-2 lead in the seventh against Adams, but the junior regrouped to throw a scoreless eighth inning that set USF up for its rally in the ninth.

Mendez completed a hot series at the plate by going 3-for-5 in the finale. The junior outfielder went 7-for-13 and scored four runs in the three games. Llerena and Zac Gilcrease collected two hits in the final game of a series that started with Andrew Barbosa allowing just two hits in a complete game shutout victory for USF.

The Bulls stay on the road to play their final nonconference game of the regular season 6 p.m. Wednesday at North Florida. Two more Big East series remain on the USF schedule with UConn coming to Tampa for three games starting 7 p.m. Friday. The Bulls wrap up their regular season May 17-19 at West Virginia.