March 30, 2008
Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score
Staten Island, NY - The Wagner Seahawks and the Maine Black Bears split a doubleheader for the second-straight day at the Richmond County Bank Ballpark. The Green & White won game one 2-1 before the Black Bears claimed game two 3-2. With the split the Seahawks move to 7-11 while the Black Bears are 7-13.
Sophomore Joe Conforti (Staten Island, NY / Farrell) led the way going 2-2 in game one with an RBI double that tied the game up at 1-1 and a RBI single that gave Wagner a 2-1 lead in the fourth.
Sophomore RHP Matt Watson (Howell, NJ / Howell) had a masterful outing, yielding just a single unearned run on five hits, two of which didn't make it out of the infield, and two walks while striking out one over 6.0 innings. With the victory, the righty moves to 2-3 on the year.
Junior RHP Andrew Huebner (Hatfield, PA / North Penn) pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save in as many days.
Maine jumped out in front 1-0 in the top of the first with an unearned run. Myckie Lugbauer, who had doubled with two outs, scored on an error by the shortstop.
Sophomore Damian Csakai (Freehold, NJ / Freehold) doubled in Wagner's half of the first but was stranded at third.
After Watson used the double-play ball to get out of trouble in the second, the Seahawks went to work. Freshman Matt Logan (Wall, NJ / Wall) was hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom of the second. After a strikeout, Logan was safe at second on a throwing error by the pitcher, giving Wagner first-and-second with one out. Conforti followed with a double to right field that that plated Logan while tying the game up at a run apiece.
In the fourth, junior Chris Drechsel (Cranford, NJ / Cranford) walked and stole second before Conforti brought him around with a RBI single to right.
Maine would threaten in each of the last two frames, but each time the Seahawk defense stepped up. Curt Smith singled and stole second with no outs in the sixth. He would be thrown out at third on a bullet from Brian Martutartus (Carlsbad, CA / La Costa Canyon) on a force play. Watson then concluded his 96-pitch day with a ground-ball double play to get out of the inning.
In the seventh, Maine again got the lead-off runner on board. However, the Black Bears were doubled up on a line-out to third base before Huebner struck out pinch-hitter Joey Martin on three pitches for his third save of the year.
Maine's Matt Jebb fell to 1-1, yielding two runs, one earned, with eight strikeouts over 6.0 innings.
In game two, junior RHP Andy Wells (Staten Island, NY / Siena) came out firing on all cylinders, striking out the side in the first. Unfortunately for Wagner, Maine starter Kyle Benoit also struck out the side in the first.
The Black Bears would strike for two runs in the second on a two-out two-run double from Jarrett Lukas.
Maine would add another run in the fifth on a Billy Cather RBI single while chasing Wells. The hard-throwing righty struck out seven while yielding just three hits and three runs over 4.1 innings.
Benoit was on cruise control over the first four innings, facing the minimum in the second, third and fourth while striking out the side in the first and the fourth.
The Wagner bats finally awoke in the fifth inning. Freshman Joe Jamison (West Caldwell, NJ / James Caldwell), who had entered the game in the top of the stanza, doubled to deep left-center to lead off the frame. Sophomore Kevin McDonnell (Bristol, CT / Avon Old Farms), Drechsel and Martutartus all followed with walks to force in a run and close the deficit to 3-1 while chasing Benoit with the bases loaded and nobody out. Csakai greeted Alejandro Balsinde with a RBI groundout before the junior righty escaped without yielding any more runs, inducing a strikeout and a ground out.
The Seahawks would get a lead-off single from Logan in the sixth but would strand pinch-runner freshman Jared Gruccio (Landisville, NJ / Buena Regional) at second before going down 1-2-3 in the seventh as the two teams concluded their third-straight one-run game.
Benoit (1-0) struck out eight and gave up two runs on two hits and four walks over 4.0 innings while Balsinde struck out two over 3.0 innings of one-hit relief. Wells falls to 0-3 on the season.
Wagner heads to Rutgers on Tuesday, April 1 at 3:30 pm.
