Flemington, NJ – Taking the field for the first time in 360 days, the Wagner College baseball team dropped a 5-3 decision to Lafayette in game one of Saturday's doubleheader. It was the season opener for both teams.
 
Offensively, David Melfi paced the Seahawks' offense with two hits and scored twice. He, along with AJ Medrano and newcomer Jared Gillen recorded an RBI. On the mound, veteran right-hander Ryan Lauk went 3.2 innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on just one hit while striking out six batters and yielding four walks.
 
Out of the bullpen for the Seahawks this afternoon, left-hander John LaPointe tossed 2.2 frames, giving up two hits, one earned run, a walk, and fanning two Leopards. Nick Zuppe didn't allow a run in his 1.2 innings of work, as he struck out three and walked a batter.

For Lafayette, Justin Grech went 2 for 4 with two RBI and a run scored while Justin Johnson scored twice and also added an RBI. Ethan Stern, who went 1 for 3 at the dish, had an RBI as well. Jordan Yoder went six innings, giving up just two earned runs on five hits en route to picking up his first win of the season. Yoder struck out eight Seahawks and allowed just one walk on the afternoon. Jake Bloss pitched the final three innings in picking up the save.
 
Johnson plated across the first run of the game for Lafayette, sending a grounder to second as Grech came across to score after tripling to center. Wagner answered back with two in the second as Melfi doubled to right field that brought in Mike Ruggiero. The next batter, AJ Medrano, singled to right, as Melfi crossed the plate, giving Wagner a 2-1 lead.

The Leopards tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the third as an errant throw allowed Stern to score. Lafayette tacked on two more runs in the bottom off the fourth, as Grech plated home two on a single to center.
 
With one out in the top of the seventh, the Seahawks cut the deficit to one, 3-2, against Bloss. Melfi tripled to center. Wagner elected to send up a pinch-hitter in newcomer Jared Gillen, who promptly delivered a double to right-center field, which allowed Melfi to score.  In the bottom half of the inning, LaPointe was able to induce a ground out to short but Johnson sent a single and moved into scoring position off the failed pickoff attempt. Zuppe relieved LaPointe and the first b

The Seahawks cut the deficit to one, 3-2, in the top of the seventh against Bloss. With one out, Melfi tripled to center. Wagner elected for a pinch-hitter in Jared Gillen, who sent a double to right-center field, scoring Melfi. In the bottom half of the inning, LaPointe was able to get Grech to ground out to short for the first out but Johnson singled and stole second on a failed pickoff attempt. Zuppe came in for LaPointe and allowed a double to right-center off-the-bat of Stern, which gave Lafayette a 5-3 lead that they didn't let go of.

Wagner and Lafayette closes out the series in game two later this afternoon.