March 21, 2008

Stats

Orlando, FL - Senior rightfielder Ami Iwicki (Flemington, NJ/Hunterdon Central) singled to right field with the score knotted up 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning to drive in junior designated player Jaclyn Vanore (Palisades Park, NJ/Paramus Catholic) from third base giving the Seahawks (7-8) their fifth-straight victory by a run (2-1) over Brown University (2-4).

Freshman pitcher Heather Ochoa (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame) rebounded from her rough start yesterday against Siena and pitched seven innings of three hit, one run (unearned) ball striking out a career-high seven batters to catapult the Seahawks into a position where they won it in their last half of the seventh. She earned the win and moved to a 4-2 record in this her rookie season.

Brown got on the board first in the opening inning after their lead-off batter reached on an error by the third baseman and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly to centerfield. The inning had all the makings of what could've turned into disaster for the Seahawks but Ochoa coolly got out of a bases loaded jam by getting their centerfielder to pop up to sophomore second baseman Kate Eshelman (Reno, NV/McQueen).

The Seahawks evened out the score in the bottom of the fourth when senior shortstop Katie Stevens (Reno, NV/Wooster) doubled to lead off the inning and was driven in (tying her for the team-lead in runs scored with 12) two batters later by Andrea Lazzari who ripped a ground-rule double that bounced over the fence in right field.

Bears' pitcher Michelle Moses kept the Seahawk bats silent up until the game-winning single in the seventh and for virtually most of the game as she threw ice on a hot Wagner offense that had been averaging nine and a half runs and eleven hits a game in its last four games to two runs on five hits and nine strikeouts - six of which were looking at the third strike.

In the first game the decision wasn't so down-to-the-wire as the Seahawks had control and their way with the Leopards of Lafayette College from the opening inning.

In the first two stanzas Wagner would take advantage of two costly Lafayette errors and push across three runs on two hits including an Andrea Lazzari RBI single in the first.

The Seahawks would go on to put up two or more runs in each of the following innings including a three-run top of the third when they used another three Lafayette errors and one hit of their own - a single through the left side from senior catcher Victoria Batistelli (Huntington Beach, CA/Huntington Beach) - to take a commanding 6-0 lead into the bottom of the third.

The game was finally called in the bottom of the fifth inning when Seahawk sophomore starting pitcher Kate Eshelman (Reno, NV/McQueen) closed the door on Lafayette one-two-three for her first win of the season on the hill after Wagner got three runs to make the score 11-0 in the top half with an RBI Katie Stevens triple capping the inning. The mercy rule was in play after, in the top of the fourth, Lazzari drove in freshman leftfielder Hailey Corthell (Reno, NV/Reno) - giving her a game high 2 RBI - to make the score 8-0.

Eshelman moved to 1-3 in 2008, her first game getting the nod as the Seahawks' starter since injuring her leg in the second day of the Rebel Games against Rhode Island.

The Seahawks now get ready for tomorrow in their final two games in Florida. They'll take on Siena for the second time this tournament at 9 a.m. and then Cornell University right after at 11 a.m.