Pictured Above: Seniors Trey Nicosia and Ben Ruta, who each had two hits for the Seahawks in game one of Saturday's doubleheader

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Staten Island, NY - The Wagner baseball team dropped the opening game of Saturday's Northeast Conference (NEC) doubleheader, 3-0, against the Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers. 

With the loss, the Seahawks fall to 10-25; 5-13 in league play while the Mount improves to 8-26 and also stand at 5-13 in conference action.

Senior outfielders Trey Nicosia (State College, PA/State College Area) and Ben Ruta (West Windsor, NJ/West-Windsor Plainsboro South) each had two hits in Saturday's opener of the twin bill. 

Senior RHP Nick Pavia (Staten Island, NY/St. Joseph's By The Sea) pitched well in defeat, tossing a season-high five innings, allowing five hits, three runs (two earned) while walking four and tying a career-best with four strikeouts. The four strikeouts for Pavia (0-4) marked the seventh time in his career that he has reached this feat and first time since earlier this month (April 10) against LIU Brooklyn.  Freshman Neil Abbatiello (North Salem, NY/Dobbs Ferry) came on in relief and tossed two scoreless innings, allowing a hit and striking out two batters and issuing one walk.  

Mount's Ryan Owens paced the Mountaineers at the plate with two hits in game one while Vaughn Parker II and Zach Call each drove in a run in the victory. Austin Bonadio (1-1) tossed three scoreless innings, allowing just three hits and striking out three batters. Seth Schubert and Michael Kuypers combined to throw the final four innings with Kuypers picking up the save. 

The Mountaineers scored first on a fielder's choice off the bat of Parker II in the top of the first. In the bottom of the stanza, the Seahawks mounted a two-out rally as Ruta singled to right followed by a single off the bat of freshman Phil Capra (North Salem, NY/North Salem) but the threat ended on a flyout to right field from sophomore Anthony Godino (Thornwood, NY/Pleasantville).  Mount St. Mary's added a run in the second off an error by junior shortstop Nick Mascelli (Clifton, NJ/Seton Hall Prep).

The Seahawks' best chance in the contest came in the third inning. Sophomore 2B Kyle Brey (Middletown, NJ/Middletown South) reached on an error by Mount's SS, Patrick Causa.  With one-out, Nicosia reached on a bunt single that moved Brey to third after took second on a wild pitch.  Capra was hit by an errant 2-2 pitch from Bonadio, loading the bases but were unsuccessful in cutting into the deficit as the frame ended with a pop out. 

The final run of game one came in the top of the sixth as Call was hit by a 1-2 pitch from Abbatiello, scoring pinch-runner Tanner Sampson.

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