March 4, 2007
Box Score
Miami, FL - The Wagner Seahawks scored four ninth-inning runs and then held off Florida International in the bottom of the inning to win their first game of the year 10-9 in the series finale at Univeristy Park Stadium. With the win, the Green & White improve to 1-2 on the young season while the Golden Panthers drop to 9-6.
Trailing 8-7 in the top of the ninth, freshman Kevin Payne's (Staten Island, NY / St. Peter's) one-out bases-clearing double emptied the bases and put the Green & White up for good at 10-8. Junior Joe Testa (Brick, NJ / Brick) then came on in the ninth and after yielding one run closed the door on Golden Panthers for his first career save.
Today's game started out as anything but a high-scoring affair as the two teams were tied 1-1 after the first six innings. Wagner freshman rhp AJ Pirozzi (Staten Island, NY / Farrell) silenced the FIU bats striking out two while allowing just three hits and one earned run in 5.0 innings in his first career start.
In the top of the seventh, the Wagner bats came to life as freshman Damian Csakai (Freehold, NJ / Freehold) led off with a base hit to right field. Csakai then stoke second before being moved to third on a bunt hit by senior Matt Mastrianni (Ringoes, NJ / Hunterdon Central). Classmate Joseph DiGeronimo (Hawthorne, NJ / Hawthorne) came up big yet again with a base hit through the left side plating Csakai and moving Mastrianni to second. Mastrianni then advanced to third on a fly out and DiGeronimo took second with his second stolen base of the day. Sophomore Pete Delleani (Manalapan, NJ / CBA) was intentionally walked to load up the bases. Freshman Kevin McDonnell (Bristol, CT / Avon Old Farms) then got two more across the board as he reached on an error by the FIU shortstop to put Wagner up 4-1. McDonnell then stole second base to give Wagner runners at second and third with one out yet again. Junior Dan Morvay's (Jackson, NJ / Jackson Memorial) sacrifice fly brought home Delleani to make it 5-1 while advancing McDonnell to third. The Green & White would close out the scoring when sophomore Chris Drechesel's (Cranford, NJ / Cranford) infield hit brought McDonnell home to put Wagner up 6-1.
The homestanding Golden Panthers would not go away as they answered with six runs in the bottom of the seventh to go up 7-6 before tacking on another run in the eighth to go up 8-6 heading into the final stanza.
In the top of the ninth, Vin Avella (Matawan, NJ / CBA) led off with a walk before being replaced by classmate Joe Conforti (Staten Island, NY / Farrell). After a foul-out, McDonnell singled to centerfield, moving Conforti to second. Pinch-hitter senior Ed Sudol (Wallington, NJ / Wallington) blasted a single to left field that the left fielder bobbled allowing Conforti to score and McDonnell and Sudol to move up to second and third. With FIU up just 8-7 at the point, Drechsel was intentionally walked to set the stage for Payne's late-inning heroics.
Junior Thomas Weston (Fair Haven, NJ / Rumson) picked up the win after striking out one in 1.0 scoreless inning of relief to improve to 1-0. Brian Santana gave up three runs in 1.1 innings of relief to fall to 1-1 on the season for the Golden Panthers.
The Green & White scored 10 runs on 14 hits and were led by Delleani, who went 3-4 with a double. Csakai, Mastrianni, McDonnell and Drechsel all also had to two hits to round out a stellar offensive-performance by Wagner, which has seven regulars hitting above .300 after the first weekend. FIU tallied nine runs on 11 hits highlighted by Bryan Pullin, who went 4-6.
The Seahawks will return to action next weekend with a three-game set at UMBC beginning on Friday at 6 pm.
