April 12, 2008
Box Score
Staten Island, NY - Sophomore Kevin Payne (Staten Island, NY / St. Peter's) blasted a home run to deep center to break a fourth-inning tie, propelling Wagner to a 4-3 win in game two of today's doubleheader at the Richmond County Bank Ballpark. With the win, the Seahawks improve to 13-14 and 5-2 in the Northeast Conference (NEC) while snapping the Hawks' 15-game winning streak. Monmouth falls to 17-9 and 6-1 in the NEC.
Sophomore Kyle Morrison (Middlesex, NJ / Immaculata) evened his record at 2-2, striking out six, against just two walks, over 6.0 innings while yielding three runs on six hits. Junior RHP Andrew Huebner (Hatfield, PA / North Penn) moved into a tie for second-place on the Wagner single-season saves list with his sixth stop of the year in as many chances. The hard-throwing righty retired the side in order to preserve the Wagner win.
After failing to score in the first two games of the series, the Seahawks finally got on the board. Sophomore Kevin McDonnell's (Bristol, CT / Avon Old Farms) two-out double to left field, plated classmate Vin Avella (Matawan, NJ / CBA), who had singled on the previous play.
The Green & White would tack on two more runs in the third when Avella crushed a two-run home run, his team-best fourth of the year, to left-center, scoring junior Chris Drechsel (Cranford, NJ / Cranford), who had singled to lead off the inning.
Morrison, meanwhile, was cruising along through the first three innings, striking out four while yielding just one hit.
In the fourth, the potent Monmouth-offense came to life. Nick Pulsonetti clouted a home run to left field to cut the deficit to 3-1. Chris Collazo and Ryan Terry followed with hits to make it second-and-third with no outs. Brett Holland further trimmed the deficit to 3-2 with a RBI single to the shortstop. After a walk, Kyle Higgins tied it up at 3-3 with a RBI force play. With runners on the corner and one out, Drechsel then gunned out Higgins trying to swipe second, marking just the third time the speedy shortstop had been thrown out on the year. Morrison then escaped further damage by inducing a routine grounder to end the inning.
Payne answered for the Green & White blasting the first pitch he saw in the fourth over the centerfield wall, putting Wagner up for good at 4-3 with his second homer of the year while chasing Monmouth starter LHP Matt Marc-Aurele.
From this point on it would be a pitcher's dual as Monmouth RHP Tim Dexter faced the minimum nine batters over 3.0 scoreless innings of relief.
Morrison was equally good retiring six-of-seven spanning the fifth and sixth innings.
Huebner then entered in the seventh and after a lengthy battle with Higgins, struck out the Monmouth lead-off hitter with a nasty curve that hooked over the inside part of the plate. On the ensuing play, Shawn Teters hit a rope to right-center that McDonnell corralled with a beautiful shoe-string grab after getting an excellent jump. Huebner closed out the game by inducing Andy Meyers into a routine fly to left field while moving back into a tie for first place in the NEC in saves (6) with Monmouth closer Justin Esposito.
Marc-Aurele struck out two and yielded four runs on seven hits over 3.0 innings in falling to 1-2
Avella led Wagner at the plate, going 2-3 with a home run, two RBI and two runs scored. Drechsel also recorded two hits while Payne provided the dramatics with a solo shot in the fourth.
Pulsonetti and Collazo each had two hits for the Hawks, which saw their No. 1 - No. 4 hitters go a combined 0-15 against Seahawk pitching in the second game.
The teams will wrap up their four-game set with a single nine-inning game tomorrow. First pitch is slated for 12:00 pm.
