St. Mary's City, Md. – The St. Mary's College of Maryland baseball team (5-3, 1-1 CAC) split their Capital Athletic Conference opening doubleheader with Frostburg State University (4-2, 1-1 CAC) Saturday afternoon. The Seahawks captured the first game by a 3-1 score before Frostburg State took the second by a 4-1 count.
The first game went scoreless for the first three scoreless innings before the Seahawks got on the board in the bottom of the fourth with three runs. Following sophomore Corey Napier's (Leonardtown, Md./St. Mary's Ryken) leadoff walk, junior Keith Johnson (Great Mills, Md./Great Mills) doubled to right center to advance Napier to third. Napier then scored on a passed ball by FSU catcher Corey Carr (McHenry, Md.) after junior Nick Urso (Newtown, Conn./Newtown) picked up his team-best sixth hit by pitch to load the bases. Senior Joey Kavanagh (Huntingtown, Md./Huntingtown) singled to centerfield to score Johnson and advance Urso to third. Senior Ian Simpson-Shelton (Upper Marlboro, Md./DeMatha) hit into a 4-3 double play, allowing Urso to plate the Seahawks' third run. Bobcat right-handed ace Greg Ross (Towson, Md.) got out of the inning by getting leadoff hitter Matt Baden (Huntingtown, Md./Huntingtown) to ground out to third base.
Frostburg got one back in the sixth as first-year Tyler Hawthorne (Wilmington, Del.) cracked a double to left center to score junior Doug Anuszewski (Eldersburg, Md.) who got on base with a single to right field as the second batter of the inning. Seahawk starter Devon Jerrard (Hunt Valley, Md./Boys' Latin) got the next two batters to fly out to centerfield to cut short the Bobcat rally.
Jerrard (2-0) pitched 6.0 solid innings with six strikeouts and just one walk before being relieved by sophomore lefthander Wick Eisenberg (Towson, Md./Friends). Eisenberg earned his second consecutive save by throwing a hitless inning.
In the nightcap, St. Mary's scored its lone run in the first inning when Baden hit an infield single to leadoff the inning before advancing to second on a ground out by sophomore John Stewart (Annapolis, Md./St. Mary's, Annapolis). Baden then went to third on Napier's single before stealing home.
Frostburg staked a 2-1 lead in the third following an RBI single by Carr and a sacrifice fly to right field by senior Matt Ridenour (Hagerstown, Md.). After three scoreless innings, the Bobcats added two more in the seventh on a two-run single by Carr. FSU starter Britton Quayle (Severna Park, Md.) denied the Seahawks a rally in the seventh, giving up just one hit to four batters faced with a foul out, ground out and strikeout.
Sophomore starter Carlos Cruz (Lexington Park, Md./Great Mills) suffered the loss as Cruz (1-2) allowed four runs on seven hits. Simpson-Shelton, Napier, Kavanagh and Baden all had two hits on the day to lead the Seahawks offensively.
St. Mary's returns to the Hawk's Nest tomorrow to wrap up its three-game series with Frostburg State. The first pitch is at 12:00 pm.