March 17, 2007
Box Score
Rock Hill, SC - The Wagner Seahawks (2-6) dropped the first game of today's doubleheader at Winthrop 11-2 at the Winthrop Ballpark. The Eagles scored four first-inning runs and never looked back as they improved to 12-10. Wagner scored their two runs on eight hits while Winthrop tallied 11 runs on 11 hits.
Winthrop started quickly loading the bases with no outs in the top of the first. After a fielder's choice the Eagles went up 2-0 on a two-run double off the bat of Billy Froehlich. Following a walk, Winthrop scored two more runs on RBI-singles from Tommy Lentz and Eddie Tisdale before freshman Kyle Morrison (Middlesex, NJ / Immaculata) quelled the threat by retiring the next two hitters.
The Eagles added a run in the fourth inning when after a pair of walks and a sacrifice bunt, Phil Carey rapped out his third hit of the day, a single to right field, scoring Jayson Hernandez to make it 5-0. Morrison would strike out the next two batters to escape any further damage.
The Seahawks finally got on the board on the top of the fifth with a two-out rally. Sophomore Chris Drechsel (Cranford, NJ / Cranford) walked and stole second. Freshman Joe Conforti (Staten Island, NY / Farrell) followed with a walk of his own. Senior Joseph DiGeronimo (Hawthorne, NJ / Hawthorne) then singled to left field to extend his season-opening hitting streak to eight games while cutting the lead to 5-1 Winthrop. However the Seahawks were unable to dent the scoreboard further as senior Matt Mastrianni (Ringoes, NJ / Hunterdon Central) flew out to left field.
Wagner would threaten again in the top of the sixth as sophomore Pete Delleani (Manalapan, NJ / CBA) and senior Ed Sudol (Wallington, NJ / Wallington) led off with singles. Winthrop starting pitcher Jason Franzblau put an end to that threat getting the next batter to strike out before coaxing a line-drive double play.
Winthrop added to their lead in the bottom of the sixth with two more runs. The Green & White would get one of those runs back in the top of seventh when DiGeronimo doubled to lead off the inning. He was advanced to third on a single from Mastrianni. Delleani followed with a single of his own to cut the deficit to 7-2 with no outs. However that would be it for the Seahawk-rally as Franzblau induced a double play before striking out the next batter.
The Eagles added four more runs in the top of the eighth and won going away 11-2.
DiGeronimo and Delleani each had two hits to lead the Wagner-offense.
Franzblau improved to 4-2 on the year, striking out 11 over 8.0 innings while yielding two runs on seven hits and four walks.
Morrison (0-3) gave up seven earned runs and struck out three over 6.0 innings in taking the loss.
The two teams will now wait 30 minutes before playing game two. Live stats can be accessed through the Wagner and Winthrop websites.
