Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score

Staten Island, NY – In their final home games of the 2012 regular season, the Seahawks softball team dropped two Northeast Conference decisions to LIU Brooklyn, 3-5 and 7-9, today at Wagner Field. The sweep by the Blackbirds slides the Green & White to 15-31 on the year and 4-12 in the league. LIU Brooklyn improves to 21-30 overall and 12-4 in the NEC with the two wins.

To start game one, it was the Blackbirds who opened the scoring after Seahawks pitcher Olivia Zwick (Surrey, Canada / Earl Marriot) walked three of the first four batters, leading up to a Wagner defensive error and 1-0 early lead for LIU Brooklyn.

Wagner picked up its first hit of the day in the bottom of the second inning when sophomore MacKenzie Alfaro (Riverside, CA / Riverside) roped a leadoff single through the right side of the infield for her 31^st hit of the year. Blackbirds' pitcher Cassie Vondrak retired the next three Seahawks to prevent any Wagner scoring, keeping her team up 1-0.

The Blackbirds added four more runs in the top of the fourth inning on two walks and three hits, including a three-run double by Sterling Hoham, that put Wagner down 5-0. With two outs and two runners still left on base, head coach Glen Payne replaced Zwick with junior right hander Judy Betz (Ashburn, VA / Broad Run), who promptly entered the game and struckout Emily Kakuska to end the inning.

Freshman Kelsey Parker (Lynnwood, WA / Lynnwood) put Wagner on the board in the bottom half of the fourth inning getting on base with her conference leading 13^th double of the year, before crossing the plate on a RBI single by Jessica Albarran (Corona, CA / Eleanor Roosevelt). Junior Brittany Huss (Anthem, AZ / Boulder Creek) also scored in the inning, after she earned a no-out walk, and then was driven home by senior Ashley Olsen (Staten Island, NY / Notre Dame Academy), who recorded her 12^th RBI of the year, making it a 5-2 game. Megan Sheaf, who came in to relieve Vondrak with one out in the fourth, kept her team in the lead getting senior Vanessa Lenart (Fontana, CA / Henry J. Kaiser HS) to line into a double play.

Both Betz and Sheaf locked down their opponents' offense in the fifth and sixth innings, allowing just three hits between them, sending the game into the seventh inning with LIU Brooklyn still up, 5-2.

After Betz threw another scoreless inning in the top of the seventh, the Seahawks battled back with their bats. Sophomore Kristen Matteoni (Reno, NV / Galena) led off the frame reaching base on an infield error and scored three batters later on a two-out single by Huss to make it a two-run game with one runner on base. Alfaro followed Huss' lead, recording her second hit of the day and putting two the tying run on base, but Sheaf got Albarran to pop out to the infield to ruin any further comeback and seal the 5-3 Blackbirds win.

Zwick was credited with the loss for the Seahawks, going 3.2 innings, allowing five runs on five hits. Sheaf picked up her fifth win of the year for LIU, also throwing 3.2 innings, giving up just one run on three hits.

GAME TWO

In the second game of the day, Coach Payne gave the nod to freshman Samantha Bedker (Phoenix, AZ / Sandra Day O'Connor), taking the ball for her 22^nd start of the year.

The Blackbirds momentum from game one carried over to the matinee, as LIU again jumped out to an early lead, taking advantage of three first-inning walks and a RBI single by Hoham that gave the visitor's a 1-0 lead.

Wagner came right back in the bottom half of the first after Matteoni led off the inning getting plunked by Blackbirds' pitcher Sarah Reynolds. The second-year advanced all the way around the bases on infield sacrifice hits, and scored on a wild pitch by Reynolds, evening the score at one apiece.

Each team went scoreless in the second and third innings before the Blackbirds broke the tie in the top of the fourth inning, exploding for four runs on five consecutive hits, including a two-run double by Paris Shipp, putting Wagner in a four-run hole, 5-1.

Wagner put together some hits in their half of the fourth inning, loading the bases on hits by Albarran and Lenart, but Vondrak, who came in for relief of Reynolds, was able to get her team out of the jam, preserving the four-run lead.

LIU Brooklyn extended its lead in the fifth inning, scoring one run on two hits, to take a 6-1 lead going into the bottom of the fifth.

After being held hitless in the fifth inning, Albarran led off the sixth frame blasting Vondrak's first pitch deep to the left field wall, but Karina Cervantes made a highlight catch, jumping up and robbing Albarran of her fourth homerun of the year. Junior Carley Nicoletti (Plainville, NY / C.W. Baker) posted her second hit of the afternoon later in the inning, knocking a two-out single down the left field line, but the speedy third-year was stranded on base as Vondrak got Lenart to ground out to end the inning.

Hoham added three more runs to the Blackbirds scoreboard in the top of the seventh inning, blasting her fourth homerun of the year off Betz, putting Wagner down 9-1.

The Seahawks got started on the comeback trail in the bottom of the seventh, when both Matteoni and Parker belted solo homeruns before Huss, Albarran and Beth Lewis (Ashburn, VA / Stone Bridge) loaded the bases with just one out and a 9-3 game. Sheaf, who came in to relieve Vondrak after Lewis' single, tried to stop the Wagner rally, getting Olsen to pop out in the next at bat, but Nicoletti kept the ball rolling, rocketing a Sheaf pitcher over the centerfield fence for her second homer of the year and first collegiate grand slam. With a seven-run lead all but erased, Sheaf made the final out for the Blackbirds, ending Wagner's six-run, seventh-inning comeback and sealing the 9-7 victory.

Betz was tabbed with the loss, allowing six runs on 10 hits, moving to 3-6 on the year.

The Seahawks will wrap up their conference regular season schedule next weekend, travelling to Fairleigh Dickinson and Mount St. Mary's. Wagner's first two-game set against FDU is schedule for a 1:00 p.m. start.

NOTE: Prior to the start of game one, the Seahawks acknowledged seniors' Ashley Olsen and Vanessa Lenart who played in their final home games of their illustrious collegiate careers.