May 20, 2007

Box Score

West Long Branch, NJ - Led by their four seniors and the solid pitching of redshirt-freshman Matt Watson (Howell, NJ / Howell) the Wagner Seahawks concluded their season with a 4-1 win over Monmouth to garner a split in today's doubleheader. With the win, Wagner ends the season with a record of 17-34 and 11-17 in the NEC while the Hawks improve to 33-21-1 and 17-10 in conference-play.

Senior Matt Mastrianni (Ringoes, NJ / Hunterdon Central) led the way for Wagner going 4-4 with and RBI and a run. He finisheds his career with 202 hits, good for third all-time in Seahawk history, as he passed former teammates Nick Papa and Chris Dick with his fourth hit of the day in the seventh inning. Watson hurled the first complete game of his young-career, striking out two against zero walks over a career-high 7.0 innings while yielding one run on seven hits.

After dropping game one, Wagner dented the scoreboard first. With two outs in the opening frame, Mastrianni singled through the right side. Freshman Vin Avella (Matawan, NJ / CBA) then walked before senior Ed Sudol (Wallington, NJ / Wallington) crushed a two-run double to deep right field to put Wagner up 2-0.

Watson ran into trouble in the bottom of the inning as the Hawks had runners at the corners with no outs. However the crafty right hander induced a weak fly out to freshman Kevin McDonnell (Bristol, CT / Avon Old Farms) before inducing an inning ending double play.

Mastrianni added to the lead in the third when he recorded his 200th career hit, a single through the right side, that brought around freshman Damian Csakai (Freehold, NJ / Freehold) to make the score 3-0.

The Seahawks would add on another run in the top of the fourth to push their lead out to 4-0. McDonnell singled through the right side and after a pop-out advanced to third on a groundout. Senior Pat Rogers (Middletown, NJ / Brookdale CC) then brought around McDonnell with a single through the right side.

Monmouth would get that run back in the bottom of the inning using three singles.

Watson then faced the minimum over the final 3.0 innings in moving to 2-5 on the season.

Brett Brach yielded four runs, three earned, on six hits in 5.0 innings to fall to 3-6

Fittingly, senior Joseph DiGeronimo (Hawthorne, NJ / Hawthorne), the 2007 team MVP, concluded his career by having a hand in each of the last three outs of the game, handling two grounders flawlessly before corralling a pop-up to end the game. He finished his career with a school-record 219 hits while ranking among the top 10 on the Seahawks career list in stolen bases, runs, doubles, triples and assists.

The Seahawks lose four seniors from this year's team but return 24 letterwinners.