Jacksonville, FL - Wagner begins its annual Spring Break trip this weekend with a game at defending Atlantic Sun (A-Sun) Champion Jacksonville on Saturday, March 6 at 7:00 pm before playing at fellow league representative North Florida on Sunday, March 7 at 3:00 pm.

The Seahawks enter this weekend with a deceptive 0-3 record after dropping three games to Big South representative Winthrop, which is currently undefeated at 7-0. The Green & White lost game one 3-2 and game two by a 4-3 count while leaving the bases loaded in the ninth inning. The Eagles capped the sweep with a 16-4 victory in game-three.

“We played very well at Winthrop, especially after not really practicing outside of the gym,” said head coach Joe Litterio. “This weekend coming up we will get a better idea of the pitching staff and the line-up.”

Senior first baseman Vin Avella (Matawan, NJ / CBA) paced the offense, going 6-for-12 (.500) with two doubles, one home run and six of the eight Wagner RBI on the weekend, en route to winning his first Akadema NEC Player of the Week award. Junior Jon Lucas (Hackettstown, NJ / Hackettstown) hit .333 (4-12) with two extra-base hits while senior Damian Csakai (Freehold Township, NJ / Freehold Township) batted .300 (3-10) en route to reaching base at a .462 clip.

On the mound, reigning Akadema NEC Pitcher of the Year and fifth-year senior RHP Matt Watson (Howell, NJ / Howell) earned his NEC Pitcher of the Week allowed only two runs on four hits over 8.0 innings while striking out four and becoming increasingly more effective as the game wore on. After Winthrop tied the game at 2-2 on an RBI single in the fourth inning, Watson closed the door by retiring 13 of the next 14 men to face him and left with the game tied before the top of the ninth inning.

Turning in a solid outing was sophomore RHP Ryan Van Spronsen (Brantford, Ontario / Assumption College), who struck out four while yielding four runs, all on a grand slam, in 5.2 innings. Junior RHP Ian Karlsson (Brooklyn, NY / Xaverian) rounded out the top performers on the mound, hurling 2.1 scoreless innings over two games.

Defending Atlantic Sun Champion Jacksonville is led by 20th year head coach Terry Alexander, who has taken the Dolphins to nine NCAA Regionals, including three in the last four years (2006, 2007 & 2009).

The Dolphins (4-4) are an offense-minded club (.293 average), boasting five regulars that are batting .300 or better and have received votes in the Collegiate Baseball and USA Today polls while being slated by Baseball America to finish second in the Atlantic-Sun. Jacksonville posted their biggest win of the year to date against No. 20 Oklahoma, winning by a 4-3 count.

Freshman Dan Guibransen leads the team with a .480 batting average (12-25) with three doubles, one triple, one home run and seven runs while posting a .581 OBP. Senior Chuck Opachich, a 2009 A-Sun First Team selection at second base, is second at .438 (14-32) with 10 runs, three doubles and eight RBI while posting a .525 OBP. Opachich currently has 226 hits for his career, 92 off the school-record of 318 hits.

Senior Alex Martinez is the Dolphins' top power threat after clouting 12 home runs a year ago. Last year's A-Sun Tournament MVP, Martinez is batting .323 (10-31) with four doubles, one home run and eight RBI. Last week, he hit .467 (7-15) with four doubles, one home run and seven RBI en route to A-Sun Player of the Week honors. Freshman Adam Brett Walker, whose father Adam played for the Minnesota Vikings, has complimented Martinez as a power threat, having slugged two home runs with three doubles and seven RBI while batting .320 (8-25). Rounding out the top hitters is junior Alex Swenson, who is batting.375 (9-24) with two doubles and a .500 OBP.

Jacksonville sports two players that have ties to the New York Mets. Junior Glen Johnson is the son of former player and current coach Howard “HOJO” Johnson while sophomore Jonathan Murphy, a 2009 A-Sun All-Rookie selection, is the brother of New York Mets first baseman and former Dolphin Dan Murphy, who played against Wagner in 2006 and was the A-Sun Player of the Year.

Leading the pitching staff is 2009 A-Sun Second Team selection Chris Kaminski, who posted nine saves a year ago. The junior righty has picked up right where he left off in 2010, recording a 1-1 record with a 1.50 ERA, one save and 10 strikeouts over 12.0 innings. Classmate RHP Matt Loosen was ranked as the league's second-best pro prospected and has struck out nine, against one walk, with a 2.57 ERA over his first 7.0 innings of the year. Against the Green & White, redshirt sophomore Steve Eagerton will get the ball for the first time since 2008 after missing all of last year due to Tommy John surgery. As a freshman he appeared in a team-high 25 games in his first year with 46.1 innings, 31 strikeouts and a 4.47 ERA.

North Florida, which was picked to finish fifth in the A-Sun, is 3-5 and has defeated UCF and Georgia Southern in the last two games by a combined score of 27-9. UNF, like Jacksonville, has a potent offense as six regulars are batting over .300, highlighted by sophomore Andrew Karmeris and Andrew Hannon, who are each hitting .452 (14-31). Karmeris has scored a team-best nine runs while Hannon has provided the power, rapping a team-best six doubles while accruing a .645 slugging percentage. Fifth-year senior David Eldredge is third on the team in batting at .367 (11-30). Junior Michael Smith and senior Preston Hale are each batting .324 (11-34). Hale was slated as the A-Sun's fifth-best Pro Prospect Baseball America and was a Second Team A-Sun selection a year ago. Junior Robbie Collier rounds out the top-regulars with a .304 average (7-23). Senior Justin Preckajlo has clouted two of the three Osprey home runs in just 15 at-bats.

Junior George Lott (1-0; 0.79 ERA; 11.1 IP; 9 K) leads a rotation that has posted a 6.04 ERA in eight games. Taking the mound against the Green & White will be either freshman LHP Tommy Organ (1-0; 3 games; 6.0 IP; 5K; 2BB) or redshirt freshman LHP Clayton Schulz (0-0; 2 games; 3.0 IP; 0 K; 4 BB).

NOTES:
• Litterio is 0-2, all-time, against the Dolphins dropping both match-ups in 2006
• That year Jacksonville won game one 7-2 and game two 9-5. Dan Murphy went 1-4 with four RBI, three walks and two runs over the two games.
• The only Wagner player who was on the roster for those games was Watson, who was sitting out as a redshirt.
• Current pros Andrew Bailey, Andrew Huebner and Joe Testa were on that team as was former pro Joey DiGeronimo. Bailey and Huebner did not see action while Testa fired 0.2 scoreless innings. DiGeronimo was just 1-for-8 at the plate with two walks.
• Bailey was recently featured in 2K Sports' MLB2K10 commercials. The videos can be found by clicking HERE
• Back in 2006, Jacksonville held off Sacred Heart 4-3 in Regional play, thus denying the Northeast Conference (NEC) its first-regional win. To date, it is the closest a NEC-squad has coming to winning a game in tournament play.
• Martinez and Kaminski, last week's A-Sun Player and Pitcher of the Week, struggled in the Dolphins' 4-3 loss to Bethune Cookman. Martinez struck out four times while Kaminski gave up his first two runs of the year on four hits over 1.1 innings while blowing the save and taking the loss.
• Since being named head coach in 1991, Alexander has tallied a 635-503-2 record and won six conference championships (1995, 1999, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009).
• North Florida is led by 22nd-year coach Dusty Rhodes, who is 860-393 while leading the Ospreys to 16 postseason appearances, including five World Series appearances and NAIA District Championships.
• Rhodes is retiring following this season and will be replaced by former LSU coach Smoke Lavel.
• Lavel took over for LSU coaching legend Skip Bertman in 2002 and led the Tigers to two College World Series appearances and one SEC Title in five years. Prior to that he coached at Louisana-Monroe for seven years, guiding the Warhawks to three Southland Conference crowns.
• Former Seahawk Kyle Morrison and North Florida recruit Michael Taylor were each drafted and signed by the Washington Nationals last year. Morrison was drafted in the 32nd round with Taylor getting nabbed in the sixth round.
• Avella, who added to his own Wagner career record with his 34th home run, recorded 23 putouts last weekend and is now No. 1 in school history with 1,043 putouts.
• He also now ranks third on the all-time doubles' list with 38, fifth on the all-time RBI list with 111 and eighth with 167 hits.
• Csakai was hit three times last weekend and has now been plunked 29 times in his career. That total is the second highest in school history and three off of Jack Scholz's school-record total of 32.
• Following this weekend's games, the Green & White will square off next at Bethune Cookman on Wednesday at 6:00 pm at Jackie Robinson Park.