April 29, 2007
Box Score
Staten Island, NY - The Wagner Seahawks (11-26; 6-9 NEC) crushed Fairleigh Dickinson (8-30; 3-11 NEC) 12-5 in game one of today's doubleheader at Dr. Bill Willetts Field. Every Seahawk regular had at least one hit and six had multiple-hits as the one through five hitters combined to go 13-22 with nine runs and nine RBI.
The two teams combined for 33 hits with Wagner ripping 19 hits and FDU 14.
Lost in the offensive-fireworks was the solid outing from freshman rhp AJ Pirozzi (Staten Island, NY / Farrell). Pirozzi improved to 2-4 on the season while striking out three and yielding five runs and one walk over 6.0 innings. He also induced three double play balls.
Wagner jumped out in front of FDU in the first inning scoring two runs on sophomore Peter Delleani's (Manalapan, NJ / CBA) team-best eighth home run of the year, a two-run shot to right-center that brought home senior Joseph DiGeronimo (Hawthorne, NJ / Hawthorne), who had doubled earlier in the inning.
After a 1-2-3 top of the second Wagner was back at it in the bottom of the frame. Freshman Kevin McDonnell (Bristol, CT / Avon Old Farms) blasted his second home run of the weekend to left center to make it 3-0 Wagner. The Seahawks then loaded the bases up on a Pat Rogers' (Sr., Middletown, NJ / Brookdale CC) walk and two bunt singles from sophomore Chris Drechsel (Cranford, NJ / Cranford) and freshman Damian Csakai (Freehold, NJ / Freehold). DiGeronimo made the Knights pay dearly with a two-run single up the middle, scoring Rogers and Drechsel. The Seahawks would conclude the big inning, which saw 10 batters go to the plate, when senior Matt Mastrianni (Ringoes, NJ / Hunterdon Central) was hit by a pitch, forcing in Csakai to make it 6-0 Wagner.
FDU would score two runs in the fourth on Staten Island native John Pagnotti's two-run single to right field, cutting the deficit to 6-2. Wagner got one of the runs back in the bottom of the inning when DiGeronimo walked, advanced to second on a fly out and stole third before scoring on Mastrianni's groundout.
In the top of the seventh, FDU loaded the bases with nobody out. Matt Maher then chased Pirozzi with a single to right field that plated a run to make it 7-3. Chris Grabowski greeted freshman rhp Bobby Tretola (Union, NJ / Roselle Catholic) with a single to right field that scored two runs. However on the play Grabowski took second and on the throw down Maher tried to score but was nailed on a perfect throw back to Drechsel from Delleani. Grabowski advanced to third and tried to score on the next play when the ball got away from Drechsel but to no avail as Drechsel recovered to apply the tag. From that point on it was all Wagner.
The Seahawks would send 11 men to the plate in the eighth, superseding the 10 who batted in the second, and scored five runs on six hits to put the game away.
Tretola needed just 22 pitches in throwing 3.0 shutout innings of relief to pick up his first career save.
John Meadus (2-4) took the loss after giving up six runs in 5.0 innings.
Csakai recorded a career-high five hits in six at bats to go along with two runs to lead the way for Wagner. Also turning in superb performances were Mastrianni (3 hits, 3 RBI), DiGeronimo (2 hits, 3 runs, 2 RBI), Delleani (2 hits, 2 runs), McDonnell (2 hits, 2 RBI) and Drechsel (2 hits).
