Hamden, CT - Wagner returns to action on Thursday with a critical four-game series at Quinnipiac. Both teams are currently on the outside looking in for the NEC Tournament. A series victory would go a long way to helping the Seahawks regain some momentum for the final few weekends of the regular season. For live stats click HERE and for live audio click HERE. Friday's doubleheader is slated to begin at 1:00 pm with Saturday's doubleheader set to begin at 12:00 pm.

With three conference weekends remaining and one bye weekend, Wagner is slated seventh with an 8-12 NEC record. Immediately in front of the Seahawks is the Bobcats, who hold a 9-11 league ledger. Quinnipiac started out hot, winning seven of its first eight NEC games, but have stumbled of late in dropping 10-of-12 league games. All told this weekend could provide a springboard to the playoffs for the Green & White if they can turn in a good effort.

THE MATCH-UP

On paper the teams are mirror images of one another with Quinnipiac hitting .267 as a team and Wagner .266 (WC (.297) – QU (.286) – league play). On the mound, the Bobcats have posted a 5.62 ERA and the Seahawks a 6.33 mark (QU (4.50) – WC (4.67) – league play). And finally in the field, Quinnipiac has a .953 fielding percentage and Wagner a .951 efficiency rate (WC (.959) – QU (.958) – league play).

A GLANCE AT THE GREEN & WHITE

Last weekend at Monmouth, sophomore Nick Alfano (Coral Springs, FL / North Broward Prep) led Wagner with a .667 (6-for-9) average with a ridiculous .727 OBP and three stolen bases. Junior Tommy Higgins (Port Monmouth, NJ / Red Bank Catholic) impressed his hometown fans with a .333 clip for the weekend while adding two doubles, three RBI three runs and two stolen bases while posting a .467 OBP (3 BB). After a 2-for-19 start to the season, Higgins has rebounded nicely to accrue a .308 average and has gone 34-for-98 (.348) with just six strikeouts since his slow start. During NEC-play, he has hit safely in all but four games while posting a team-best .358 average.

Junior Eddie Brown (Edison, NJ / St. Joseph's (Metuchen)) also had a solid series with a game-tying home run, two runs, two RBI and two stolen bases. After recording his second-straight multi-hit game in a midweek game against Saint Peter's, Brown has hit safely in a season-best five-straight games while posting a .368 average (7-for-19) during that time.

Senior Seth Boyd (Perth Amboy, NJ / Perth Amboy) went 4-for-13 (.308) on the weekend and is now batting .328 (19-for-58), all-time, against Monmouth while hitting safely in 13-of-18 games. Boyd continues to lead the team in hitting (.313) and is first with 12 multi-hit games, nine doubles and a .381 OBP.

On the mound, junior RHP Mark Holmes (Manalapan, NJ / Manalapan) posted another impressive performance at Monmouth, recording his second-straight complete game with 8.0 solid innings. He is now third in the NEC with 51.0 innings while going 3-4 with 18 strikeouts and a 4.24 ERA. Senior RHP Dale Hering (Belle Mead, NJ / Montgomery) notched his third-straight complete game against the Hawks and is 3-4 with a 5.82 ERA over 43.1 innings while ranking sixth in the NEC with 34 strikeouts.

SCOUTING QUINNIPIAC

Quinnipiac is an upperclass dominated team, led by the quartet of senior Mickey Amanti, junior Kyle Nisson, junior Chris Migani and senior Ben Farina. Amanti is batting a team-best .361 with a team-best 48 hits and 25 runs while adding eight doubles and seven stolen bases. Nisson, who has established himself as one of the better backstops in the NEC, checks in next at .343 with a team-best .426 OBP (6 walks, 9 HBP) while adding three doubles. Migani is third at .325, including a team-best .378 during NEC-play, with team-highs in doubles (9), home runs (3) and RBI (24). Rounding out the top Bobcat players is Farina, who is hitting .299 with a team-best 11 stolen bases.

The Hamden-based school also features three other upperclassmen among its starting nine and very rarely goes to its bench, rather employing a steady 10-man rotation.

On the mound, Quinnipiac, like Wagner, is a right-handed dominated staff and will most likely start sophomore RHP Derek Lamaccia in game one. The second-year hurler is 3-3 with 34 strikeouts and a team-best 2.30 ERA over 43.0 innings. During NEC-play, he is 2-2 with 25 strikeouts, a 2.53 ERA and two complete games over 32.0 innings.

Slated to start game two will be senior RHP Kyle Birdsall, who is 3-2 with 30 strikeouts and a 4.14 ERA over 41.1 frames while limiting hitters to a team-low .218 average. During league play, he is 2-2 with 23 strikeouts and a 4.15 ERA over 30.1 innings. The highlight of his season came against Monmouth, when he struck out 12 Hawks en route to hurling the first no-hitter in school history. Last year, he dropped game one of a Saturday doubleheader to the Green & White while allowing four runs on seven hits over 6.0 innings of a 4-3 loss.

Starting the final two games of the series will most likely be junior Anthony Cinelli and sophomore RHP George Dummar. Cinelli is 3-2 with just 15 strikeouts over 36.0 innings. Interestingly enough, all 15 of his strikeouts have come over 28.0 innings against NEC competition as the right-handed pitcher has posted a 2-2 record with a 4.82 ERA. Cinelli started and was the losing pitcher in the first game of a Saturday doubleheader a year ago, yielding three earned runs over 3.2 innings. Dummar has struggled in his second season, going 3-4 with a team-best matching 34 strikeouts over 35.2 innings while posting a 7.57 ERA. In league play he is 2-2 while his ERA drops to 6.65 with 23 K's over 23.0 innings.

Senior RHP Andrew Rinaldi is the relief specialist, posting three saves, all of which have occured during league play, with 13 strikeouts and a 4.91 ERA over 18.1 innings.

LAST YEAR

A year ago, the teams entered the final weekend vying for one of the last two NEC playoff spots as Wagner clinched a spot with a four-game sweep. The Seahawks won the first three games by a combined eight runs before posting a 10-2 victory for the series sweep.

Additionally, the Green & White bullpen hurled 9.2 innings of scoreless ball while scattering just three hits and a pair of walks with eight strikeouts.

ALL-TIME VS. QUINNIPIAC

Senior Jon Lucas (Hackettstown, NJ / Hackettstown) batted .385 (5-for-13) with a double, home run and four RBI against Quinnipiac pitching a year ago and is a lifetime .323 (10-for-31) hitter against Bobcat pitching.

Boyd also had a solid series against Quinnipiac a year ago, checking in at .375 (6-for-16) with three runs. After going just 1-for-9 against the Bobcats as a freshman in 2007, fifth-year senior Kevin McDonnell (Bristol, CT / Avon Old Farms) has hit above .300 in each of his last two years against Quinnipiac while posting a .346 (9-for-26) average during that time.

On the mound, senior LHP David Rees (Staten Island, NY / Xavier) has not yielded a run over eight career games against the Bobcats, firing 6.1 scoreless inning of four-hit ball with five strikeouts. As a freshman against Quinnipiac, he solidified his status as one of Wagner's most clutch pitchers while evading a bases-loaded, no out situation by inducing a fielder's choice grounder and an inning-ending double-play grounder. Then last year, Rees earned two saves while closing out the first three Seahawk victories. All told, the Staten Island native struck out four over 4.0 scoreless innings of one-hit ball.

NOTES:

Head coach Joe Litterio is 21-14, all-time, in 11 years against Quinnipiac, but just 7-8 in Hamden, CT.

Wagner has won 10 of its last 12 meetings with the Bobcats dating back to 2008. Additionally, 10 of those match-ups have been decided by three runs or less with the Seahawks going 8-2 in those games.

In 2009, the teams split four games in Hamden, CT with each squad notching 17 runs in the four-game split.

That series was also played in doubleheaders on the Thursday and Friday before Easter. Quinnipiac swept Thursday's doubleheader by scores of 4-3 and 7-5 before Wagner took both ends of Friday's doubleheader by scores of 2-0 and 7-6.

In the first game of the 2009 series, Kyle Morrison and Chris Gloor went head-to-head with Gloor hurling the complete game victory. Both are currently relievers in High-A with Morrison pitching for the Potomac Nationals (Washington) and Gloor the San Jose Giants (San Francisco).

McDonnell and Nisson were teammates this past summer for Bristol Collegiate of the NECBL. Quinnipiac's Alex Russow, who has yet to pitch this year, also played for Bristol.

Bobcats coach Dan Gooley is 14-17 against Wagner since returning for his second stint as Quinnipiac coach in 2002. However, at home against the Seahawks he is 8-5.

Gooley, who also coached at Quinnipiac from 1977-1987, was the head coach at Hartford from 1988-1992 and coached former Houston Astros superstar and 1994 NL MVP Jeff Bagwell.

The teams have met twice in the playoffs with each team winning once.

2007 Quinnipiac graduate Pat Egan is currently in AAA for the Norfolk Tides (Baltimore Orioles) and almost made the Milwaukee Brewers out of spring training after being selected in the Rule V draft. Right now only 2006 Wagner alumni Andrew Bailey is currently in the Major Leagues.

Speaking of Bailey, he threw another side session on Wednesday and could return by early May.

Wagner's magic numbers are six and four. When the Seahawks score six runs or more they are 5-2 and just 3-10 when notching five or less. When the Green & White pitching staff allows four runs or less, Wagner is 6-2 and is just 2-10 when yielding five or more.

Boyd is just seven hits shy of becoming the eighth member of the Wagner 200-hit club while McDonnell is 12 away.