St. John’s promotes Hampton to interim baseball coach

NEW YORK (AP) — St. John’s has promoted longtime assistant Mike Hampton to head baseball coach on an interim basis.

Hampton replaces Ed Blankmeyer, who resigned earlier this week after 24 seasons with the school to become the manager of the New York Mets’ Brooklyn Cyclones farm team in the short-season Class A New York-Penn League. Blankmeyer, the school’s winningest baseball coach, will also serve as the Mets’ extended spring training coordinator.

Hampton has been at St. John’s since 2002, working closely under Blankmeyer while playing key roles on the field as a coach and in recruiting. He has helped lead the Red Storm to 10 NCAA tournament appearances, including a trip to the super regionals in 2012.

“I spent a long time learning from the best in Coach Blankmeyer and I am confident that the work we’ve put into this program together will continue to manifest itself in our product on the field,” Hampton said in a statement Thursday issued by the university.

Hampton is a 1994 graduate of Clemson, where he was an All-American third baseman as a senior before being a fourth-round draft pick of Cincinnati. After his playing career ended due to injury, the Colorado Springs, Colorado, native spent the 1999 season as a volunteer assistant at his alma mater. He was the hitting coach at West Virginia for two seasons before joining Blankmeyer’s staff at St. John’s.