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Staten Island, NY – The Wagner baseball team concluded the 2015 Northeast Conference (NEC) regular season with a 5-3 victory on Saturday afternoon over the Bryant University Bulldogs.

Prior to the start of the contest, the Seahawks recognized its 10 seniors, catchers Nick Dini (Monroe Township, NJ/Monroe Township) and Jason Gordon (Baltimore, MD/Archbishop Curley), infielders Tommy Mazurkiewicz (Neshanic Station, NJ/Somerville) and Dan Wasilick (Toms River, NJ/Toms River East), outfielders Trey Nicosia (State College, PA/State College Area) and Zack Yesko (Mukwonago, WI/Mukwonago) along with pitchers Anthony Battaglia (Staten Island, NY/St. Joseph By The Sea), Steven Bloodworth (Annandale, NJ/North Hunterdon), Evon Previte (Raritan, NJ/Immaculata), Max Schmardel (Eatontown, NJ/Monmouth Regional) who played their final game at Richmond County Bank Ballpark.



With the win, the Green & White finished the regular season 27-21-1; 15-9 in league play and will be the No. 2 seed in the upcoming NEC Tournament, which commences on Thursday at Dodd Stadium in Norwich, CT.

The Seahawks raced out to a quick start using a two-out rally to score three runs. Junior LF Ben Ruta (West Windsor, NJ/West-Windsor Plainsboro South) drew a two-out walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI single off the bat of Dini.  Mazurkiewicz followed up with a two-run blast over the left field wall.

After a scoreless second inning, the Bulldogs had a chance to score as Dan Cellucci followed with a single to left but Ruta came up throwing and gunned down Matt Dowd at the plate.  The visitors did manage to plate across their first run of the game as Wood laced a double down the right field line to score Cellucci from first to make it 3-1.

The Bulldogs added two more runs in the top of the fifth to tie the game at three.  Joseph Paparelli worked a leadoff walk and promptly stole second and made it to third as Dowd sent a single back up-the-middle.  Cellucci poked an RBI single to right field that trimmed the lead to 3-2. A sacrifice bunt and an intentional walk loaded the bases for Daniel Palazzo, who delivered a game-tying single to left.  Bryant nearly took the lead as Colin Walsh followed with a hard hit grounder up the middle though the slick-fielding, high-energy Wasilick made a tremendous stop to start the inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.

Wagner answered back with runs in the sixth and seventh to take a 5-3 lead.  Dini, Wagner's all-time career hits leader and all-time leader in games played, doubled to open the sixth and scored on a sacrifice fly to left from Gordon.  Wasilick kicked off the seventh with a single and scored on a sac fly from Nicosia.

Junior right-hander Mike Adams (Egg Harbor Township, NJ/Holy Spirit) started for the Seahawks and pitched well in his five innings of work.  He allowed three runs on eight hits, walked two and struck out six in picking up a no decision.  Junior left-hander Paul Mammino (Hillsborough, NJ/Hillsborough) came in relief and picked up his second win of the season, tossing three innings of three-hit ball without allowing a run and walking one and striking out a batter.  Bloodworth added to his career save total as he notched his eighth save of the year and 14th for his career (good for second all-time in Wagner history).

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