BOX SCORE

Staten Island, NY – For the second-straight game, junior Vin Avella (Matawan, NJ / CBA) provided the fireworks with his first career walk-off home run and his second-straight game-winning hit in Wagner's thrilling 11-9 come-from-behind win over Mount St. Mary's at Richmond County Bank Ballpark. Down 9-2 heading into the bottom of the seventh, the Seahawks struck for nine unanswered runs, including sixth in the decisive ninth inning while improving to 18-15 and 7-6 in the Northeast Conference (NEC). The Mountaineers fall to 17-18 and 9-4 in the league.

Trailing by seven runs in the bottom of the seventh, sophomore Matt Logan (Wall, NJ / Wall) cut the lead to 9-4 with a two-run home run to deep right field.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Seahawks made it 9-5 on an Avella RBI single through the left side, plating sophomore Brian Martutartus (Carlsbad, CA / La Costa Canyon), who led off with a single.

Logan led off the bottom of the ninth with a double to right center. Senior Chris Drechsel (Cranford, NJ / Cranford) then reached on an error by the third baseman. After Mount St. Mary's reliever and reigning NEC Pitcher of the Week Mike Matta recorded a strikeout for the first out of the inning, Martutartus hit a shot back to the mound that Matta couldn't field properly, forcing him to go to first for one out while Drechsel and Logan advanced to second-and-third. Junior Joe Conforti (Staten Island, NY / Farrell) followed with a double to left, scoring the pair while cutting the deficit to 9-7. Classmate Damian Csakai (Freehold, NJ / Freehold) made it 9-8 with a run-scoring single to center field. Sophomore Jared Gruccio (Landisville, NJ / Buena Regional) was then hit by a pitch moving Csakai into scoring position while setting the table for Avella. The power-hitting first baseman crushed the second pitch he saw to deep left field for a three-run home run while setting off a wild celebration at home plate.

Avella went 2-4 with his NEC-leading 11th home run and four RBI. His 11 home runs are a career-high and place him in a tie for second place in the all-time Wagner single-season list. For his career, Avella ranks fourth with 28 home runs, just four off of Chris Dick's school-record total of 32.

Sophomore Seth Boyd (Perth Amboy, NJ / Perth Amboy), Drechsel and Martutartus all also had big games for the Green & White, recording three hits apiece as the offense struck for 16 hits.

Mount St. Mary's took the early lead at 1-0 in the top of the first. Tommy Flynn led off with a triple before scoring on Buddy Fields' infield single.

In the second inning, Shane Eyler hit his 11th home run of the year before the Mountaineers added an unearned run with two outs on Tommy Flynn's RBI single to left field, pushing the lead out to 3-0.

After threatening in the first the Wagner offense finally broke through with two runs in the bottom of the second. Drechsel and sophomore Jon Lucas (Hackettstown, NJ / Hackettstown) led off with singles. Martutartus followed with his team-leading 11th double of the year down the right-field line, plating Drechsel while advancing Lucas to third. Csakai cut the deficit to 3-2 with a sacrifice fly, plating Lucas.

Mount St. Mary's responded with two more runs in each of the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to extend the lead out to 9-2.

Flynn paced the Mount, going 3-5 with two runs while Eyler, Buddy Fields and Tony Quaranta each recorded two hits.

Sophomore RHP Ryan Van Spronsen (Brantford, Ontario / Assumption College) struck out four while yielding just two runs on four hits and no walks over 4.1 innings of relief in moving to 2-1. After giving up a pair of runs in the sixth, he settled down and allowed just one hit over the final 3.2 innings.

Matta struck out three and yielded six unearned runs on five hits over 1.2 innings in dropping to 3-1.

The teams will play two tomorrow starting at 5:00 pm.