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New Britain, CT - Mitch Wells' RBI single in the bottom of the 12th inning plated Josh Ingham while lifting Central Connecticut State to a 4-3 win over Wagner in the first of four games at the CCSU Baseball Field. In defeat, the Seahawks fall to 18-25 and 11-10 in the Northeast Conference (NEC) while the Blue Devils improve to 21-20 and 13-12 in the league.

CCSU opened the scoring with a first-inning run as Jake Matuszak led off with a double, before scoring on Tyler McIntyre's two-out RBI single through the left side.

Wagner threatened in the top of the second as junior Nick Alfano (Coral Springs, FL / North Broward Prep) singled to left field with one out. Then with two outs, sophomores Cliff Brantley (Staten Island, NY / Port Richmond) and Chris Smith (Tampa, FL / Freedom / Ellsworth (IA) CC) reached with infield hits in loading up the bases. Unfortunately, Blue Devil RHP Harry Glynn induced an inning-ending fly out to escape unscathed.

The Seahawks finally broke through in the top of the third inning. Senior Tommy Higgins (Port Monmouth, NJ / Red Bank Catholic) was plunked with one out, before advancing to third on this Eddie Brown (Edison, NJ / St. Joseph's (Metuchen) / Seton Hall) single down the right field line. Following a pop up, Brown stole his 19th base of the year, before Alfano followed with this line-drive single to left field that plated Higgins and Brown while giving the Green & White a 2-1 lead.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Blue Devils tied the score up at 2-2 on an Ingham sacrifice fly.

After both teams failed to score in the sixth inning, Wagner went in front again with an unearned run in the top of the seventh. Sophomore Ian Miller (Downingtown, PA / Bishop Shanahan) led off with a bunt single, before moving to second on a Higgins sacrifice bunt. Miller then moved over to third on a ground and would come around to score on the next play when Nick Dini's (Fr. Monroe Township, NJ / Monroe Township) deep fly was dropped by the CCSU right fielder.

The Blue Devils immediately answered in the home half of the seventh. Dylan DelaCruz led off with a single before advancing to a second on a sacrifice bunt with Anthony Turgeon reaching via an error. The pair was then moved over to second-and-third, before Matuszak chased home DelaCruz with a RBI ground out that tied it up at 3-3. Green & White starter, senior RHP Ryan Van Spronsen (Brantford, Ontario / Assumption College) evaded further damage by getting Wells to ground to second, as Dini made a nice play on the ball for the final out.

Wagner would threaten in each of the next two frames with two-out runners, only to have each player stranded at first. Meanwhile, CCSU fared no better as Van Spronsen stranded a runner in scoring position in the eighth, before senior Hayden Hunter (Santa Monica, CA / Santa Monica) threw out DelaCruz at second for the second time on the afternoon for the final out of the ninth.

After the Seahawks went down in order in the top of the 10th inning, Van Spronsen capped another outstanding performance with a 1-2-3 bottom half of the frame. For the game, the Canadian native struck out three while yielding three runs, two earned, on nine hits and a pair of walks over a career-high 10.0 innings of work.

Freshman RHP Anthony Battaglia (Staten Island, NY / St. Joseph By The Sea) worked a scoreless 11th, but wasn't as fortunate in the 12th. Ingham singled with one out, before moving to third on a Matuszak bunt single, advancing 90 feet from home as the throw went wide of first. Wells followed with his aforementioned walk-off single, providing the final 4-3 tally.

Four different members of Wagner recorded multiple-hits. Miller went 2-for-6 with his NEC-leading 24th stolen base and a run, while recording his team-best 17 multi-hit game. Alfano went 2-for-5 with two RBI, while Brown extended his hitting streak to a career-best 12 games in going 2-for-5 with a run and a stolen base. Rounding out the multi-hit performers was Smith, who finished up 2-for-4 with a walk.

Battaglia (3-2) struck out a career-best three over 1.1 innings of work in drawing the tough-luck loss.

Ingham (2-1) earned the win, striking out six over 4.0 scoreless innings of one-hit ball. DelaCruz led all players with four hits while Matuszak was 3-for-6 with a double as the Blue Devils outhit the Seahawks, 12-9.

The teams will continue their four-game series tomorrow with a doubleheader at 1:00 pm.

Notes:
* Van Spronsen's career-high 10.0 innings of work are the most by a Wagner pitcher since Mike Windstein went 10 innings in a 12-inning loss to St. John's on March 25, 2003 and the second-most by a NEC pitcher this season.

* Van Spronsen has previously allowed eight earned runs on 13 hits over 9.2 career innings of work against CCSU.

* His 83.0 innings of work now rank Van Spronsen fourth in the school's all-time single-season annals.

* On the year, the Canadian native has gone at least seven innings in each of his last nine starts and at least eight on eight occasions.

* Additionally, Van Spronsen now allowed two earned runs or less in eight of his 10 starts.

* In the Seahawks' all-time career annals, Van Spronsen moves into fifth place on the innings pitched list (245.2) and a tie for eighth place on the strikeout list (161).

* This was Green & White's fourth extra-inning game of the year (2-2) and their second 12-inning affair (0-2).

* Both teams went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

* The game was played before swirling winds that reported to be as high as 25 miles per hour.