Staten Island, NY - The Wagner baseball team split its doubleheader against Central Connecticut State on Friday. The Seahawks lost the first game, 21-8, but rebounded to win the second game, 9-3.

It was sophomore Connor Hayden who controlled the game in Wagner's victory. He retired the final 13 batters he faced to finish his seven innings of play having allowed just three runs on six hits. Hayden also struck out six batters en route to the win.

Freshman Ryan Bilka continued the solid mound work with two shutout innings to close it out.

On offense, it was seniors David Melfi and DiMaggio Cazares who drove in the early runs. Melfi hit a solo inside-the-park home run in the first inning, while Cazares hit a deep drive to left field in the third. 

From there, the Seahawks kept on scoring runs while Hayden and Bilka handled business. It was a crucial bounce back performance to move back within striking distance of first place in the Northeast Conference (NEC) standings. 

The first game of the doubleheader went south for the Green & White. After taking a 6-1 lead into the second inning, the Blue Devils poured in 12 runs over the next two frames to take a decisive lead. 

Senior Maimu Kobayashi, sophomore Matthew Kenney and Melfi had multi-hit efforts, but it was too big of a deficit to overcome.

Wagner will finish its series against Central Connecticut State on either Saturday or Sunday, depending on the weather this weekend.