May 11, 2007

Box Score

Staten Island, NY - Central Connecticut State took the first game of this five-game weekend series from Wagner with a 2-1 victory this afternoon at Dr. Bill Willetts Field With the win, the Blue Devils improve to 21-19 and 12-9 in the NEC while the Seahawks fall to 14-30 and 8-13 in the NEC.

Both starting pitchers had their way for much of the game, as Central's sophomore left-hander Ken Kerski struck out seven and walked no one on the day. The one run he allowed against the Seahawks came in the bottom of the fifth when Wagner's freshman centerfielder Damian Csakai (Freehold, NJ/Freehold) hit a two-out to drive in freshman rightfielder Kevin McDonnell (Bristol, CT/Avon Old Farms) from third after leading off the inning with a one-bagger to left off Kerski.

That stood as the only run of the game - between both teams - as Seahawk starting pitcher, junior lefthander Joe Testa (Brick, NJ/Brick), stood in line for the win going into the top of the eighth inning.

Laboring a bit with a high pitch count (Testa, would throw 148 pitches on the afternoon, walking four but striking out nine Blue Devils) the junior southpaw got himself in trouble early in the eighth when he gave up a lead-off single to the Blue Devils lead-off guy, shortstop Sean Salvatore. Central then successful sacrifice bunted Salvatore over to second. After retiring their catcher Adam Taha, making him ground to short, it brought up the clean-up batter, junior rightfielder Jak Kidd.

Way ahead in the count, Kidd blasted a 2-1 pitch over the short porch in right field instantly ruining a stellar outing by Testa and giving the Blue Devils a sudden 2-1 lead. Testa bore down and got out of the inning scathed by only that two-run blast from Kidd despite giving up two more hits thereafter and having second and third with two outs.

In the bottom-half of the eighth senior shortstop Joseph DiGeronimo (Hawthorne, NJ/Hawthorne) knocked a two-out single up the middle - tying him for number one on the all-time Wagner hits list with 214 career - after both the lead-off batter sophomore catcher Chris Drechsel (Cranford, NJ/Cranford) and Csakai grounded out. With sophomore third baseman Pete Delleani (Manalapan, NJ/CBA) at the dish, DiGeronimo stole second then advanced to third without a throw. With the count full, Blue Devil starter ended his day by plugging Delleani with an inside fastball, prompting Central to take him out of the game and relieve him with their hard-throwing senior righthander Evan Scribner.

Scribner had no problem getting out of the inning, as he induced the fly out from Seahawk freshman first baseman Vin Avella (Matawan, NJ/CBA) and kept the Blue Devils' one run lead intact into the ninth.

After Central went one-two-three in the top of the ninth thanks to a solid relief appearance from Wagner sophomore right-hander Kevin Rush (Metuchen, NJ/Metuchen), it was much of the same for the Seahawks against the Blue Devils' Scribner in the bottom of the ninth.

Scribner got both senior leftfielder Matt Mastrianni (Ringoes, NJ/Hunterdon Central) and senior designated hitter Ed Sudol (Wallington, NJ/Wallington) to strike out swinging then shut the door on the Seahawks' rally hopes by getting McDonnell to ground out to the shortstop.

Testa took the loss for the Seahawks, he drops to a record of 3-6 while CCSU's Ken Kerski moves to a record of 7-1 and Evan Scribner got credit for his fifth save of the season.

Both teams now gear up for the second day of the weekend series where they'll play two seven-inning doubleheaders at Willetts Field starting tomorrow when first pitch of the first game is scheduled for noon.