St. Mary's City, Md. – The St. Mary's College of Maryland baseball team wrapped up their three-game non-conference series with Cazenovia College Wednesday afternoon with a doubleheader split as the Seahawks (9-7) claimed the first game by a 3-2 decision while Cazenovia (1-2) took the second by a 2-0 count.
Both teams scored in the first inning of the first game as Cazenovia went up 1-0 as Derrek Root (Marathon, N.Y./Marathon) singled up the middle to bring home Jerome Bright (San Francisco, Calif./Leadership). The Seahawks scored twice in the bottom of the inning to stake a 2-1 margin as senior Matt Baden (Huntingtown, Md./Huntingtown) connected on an infield single to lead off the inning before advancing to second on a wild pitch and then stealing third. Sophomore Corey Napier (Leonardtown, Md./St. Mary's Ryken) drove Baden home with his single through the left side. St. Mary's second run came off the bat of junior Nick Urso (Newtown, Conn./Newtown) who singled with two outs to score fellow classmate Keith Johnson (Great Mills, Md./Great Mills).
No runs were scored in the next four innings until the Seahawks added another one in the sixth inning. Johnson drew a walk to start the inning before advancing to second on senior Joey Kavanagh's (Huntingtown, Md./Huntingtown) sacrifice bunt and then stealing third. Johnson then plated the run on a two-out double to right center by senior Ian Simpson-Shelton (Upper Marlboro, Md./DeMatha).
A fielding error by Napier allowed Cazenovia to score in the seventh, cutting the lead to one. Root reached base on the error to lead off the inning and was then replaced by pinch runner Adam Wiley (Marathon, N.Y./Marathon). Wiley got to second on a single by Rich Battoglia (Rochester, N.Y./Penfield) then stole third, scoring on Berly Estevez's (Bronx, N.Y./George Washington) ground to second. Sophomore RHP Carlos Cruz (Lexington Park, Md./Great Mills) got Colin Parry (Auburn, N.Y./Auburn) ground out to him to end the game.
Cruz (2-3) garnered his second win of the season as he pitched a complete game with two strikeouts, allowing two runs (one earned) on four hits.
In the second game, sloppy defensive play by the Seahawks led to six errors and both Cazenovia runs. The Wildcats struck first in the second inning when Battoglia scored an unearned run after drawing a walk, advancing to second on Kavanagh's fielding error and scoring on a fielder's choice for Brian Wilgocki (Schenectady, N.Y./CBA).
The second run came in the seventh as Wilgocki led off with a single before a fielding error by junior Eric Gronbeck (Owings, Md./Northern) allowed Root to reach base and advance to second and Wilgocki to score. First-year LHP Sam Coe (Bethesda, Md./Walter Johnson) ended the inning by getting Anthony Desarro (New Hartford, N.Y./New Hartford) to ground out to third.
Senior RHP Mikel Iraola (Kensington, Md./DeMatha) suffered the loss with six innings of work, giving up one unearned run on three hits with three strikeouts.
Johnson paced the Seahawks at the plate as he went 3-for-5 with two runs scored and a double.
St. Mary's will be back in action Friday, March 11 as the Seahawks return to Capital Athletic Conference action with a single game against Wesley College in the Hawk's Nest at 2:00 pm.