March 23, 2007
Box Score
Richmond, VA - After jumping out an early lead the Wagner Seahawks (3-8) were defeated by VCU (13-9) out of the Colonial Athletic Association by a 16-6 count earlier tonight The Diamond. The Green & White scored their six runs on 10 hits while the Rams scored 16 runs on just 12 hits.
The Seahawks took the first-inning lead as freshman Joe Conforti (Staten Island, NY / Farrell) bunted to lead off the game before stealing second. Senior Joseph DiGeronimo (Hawthorne, NJ / Hawthorne) then moved Conforti over to third on a ground out before sophomore Peter Delleani (Manalapan, NJ / CBA) blasted his team-best sixth double of the year to right center to bring home Conforti to put Wagner up 1-0.
The Seahawks' lead would be short lived as the home-standing Rams scored a combined 11 runs, just four earned, over the next two innings to go up by a game-changing margin of 11-1. VCU would tack on one more run in the fourth and four in the seventh to go up by their biggest margin at 16-1. The Seahawks shaved five runs off the lead in the top of the ninth, highlighted by DiGeronimo's two-run triple, to make the final margin 16-6.
Delleani went 2-3 with an RBI double while DiGeronimo was 2-5 to extend his season-opening hitting streak to 11. Also collecting two hits with a run was freshman Kevin McDonnell (Bristol, CT / Avon Old Farms).
Freshman Bobby Tretola (Union, NJ / Roselle Catholic) fell to 1-2 after giving up 10 runs, four earned, in 1.2 innings. Standing out in relief was the trio of junior Chris Marino (Manalapan, NJ / Manalapan), junior Kevin Rush (Metuchen, NJ / Metuchen) and freshman Tom Queno (Wethersfield, CT / Wethersfield). The three combined to give up just one earned run on three hits while striking out three in a combined 5.0 innings of work.
Justin Wright, Jared Bolden, Carlos Rodriguez all drove in three runs to pace the VCU offense while John Leonard improved to 3-1 after giving up just one run and striking out eight in 7.0 innings of work. Leonard also went 2-3 at the plate with four runs.
The two teams will meet again tomorrow at 2 pm in the second game of a three-game set. Live stats and game feed can be accessed through the VCU website at www.vcuathletics.com.
