May 15, 2008

Staten Island, NY - After claiming their fourth playoff berth in five years a casual observer might surmise that the Wagner Seahawks have nothing to play for when Sacred Heart comes to town. That couldn't be further from the truth. The Green & White enter with a 24-25 mark, including 14-10 in the NEC, and with one victory would set a school-record for wins. With two victories, the Green & White would set a school-record with 16 NEC-wins.

The 2000 version of the Wagner Seahawks set the school-mark with a 24-30-1 mark.

For the third weekend in a row Wagner has revenge on its mind. Last year, the Green & White throttled Sacred Heart 11-1 in game-one before scoring just five runs over three-straight defeats. In their game-one win against the Pioneers, senior LHP Joe Testa (Brick, NJ / Brick) struck out six over 7.0 scoreless innings of work while sophomore Vin Avella (Matawan, NJ / CBA) went 2-3 with a home run, double and four RBI. Junior Chris Drechsel (Cranford, NJ / Cranford) hit .333 against the Pioneers last year.

A trio of Wagner pitchers have had sustained success against the Pioneers. Testa has a career 1.46 ERA with nine K's and a 2-0 record over 12.1 lifetime-innings. Classmate and fellow lefty Chris Marino (Manalapan, NJ / Manalapan) has a 2.70 ERA over three appearances while junior RHP Andrew Huebner (Hatfield, PA / North Penn) has struck out six over 8.0 career innings and has posted a career 3.38 ERA.

While Wagner is already in the playoffs the Pioneers need a lot of help. To qualify, Sacred Heart (11-38; 9-15 NEC) needs to win out and have some help from around the league. This year's version of the Pioneers lost nearly its entire rotation from a year ago that included Jay Monti, who was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays. On offense, seniors Jeff Hanson and Frank Bainer were injured and are redshirting, leaving the Pioneers without a senior on its roster. Additionally, last year's third baseman Steve Tedesco was injured during football.

Leading this year's team is sophomore JJ Edwards, who is batting a team-best .314 average with 24 RBI and 16 runs. Junior Phil Tantillo, one of the team's elder statesmen on offense, is one of just two players to start every game and has a .302 average with a team-best 58 hits. Junior Chris Barthel has been the team's most consistent pitcher of late, despite having a 0-7 record. He pitched into the ninth against Quinnipiac and CCSU before losing each game by just one run. Last year, he struck out eight over 7.0 innings in claiming the game-four win against the Green & White.

One of the overlooked players on this year's Seahawk-squad is sophomore Damian Csakai (Freehold, NJ / Freehold). Despite getting off to a slow-start the speedy centerfielder has struck fire of late, evidenced by his 100th career hit against NYIT. Over his last 21 games, Csakai is batting a team-best .388 with 31 hits, 16 runs and 13 stolen bases while recording nine multi-hit games. During that time he has reached safely in 20 games and hit safely in 18 while raising his average 75 points to .284. Csakai has swiped 27 bases (28 attempts) on the year and has 49 stolen bases (50 attempts) for his career. Both his single-season and career totals rank him fourth in the all-time Seahawk annals.

This weekend's series has been adjusted due to field conflicts at Richmond County Savings Bank. The teams will play a doubleheader (two seven-inning games) starting at 1 pm on Friday. On Saturday, a nine-inning game will be played at 3 pm before the series is wrapped up with a nine on Sunday at 12 pm.

Prior to the game on Sunday, Wagner will honor its four seniors; Marino, Dan Morvay (Jackson, NJ / Jackson Memorial), Testa and student-assistant Mike Tuozzo (Holmdel, NJ / Holmdel). The quartet is responsible for helping the Green & White to three NEC Tournaments as well as 81 wins and 53 conference-victories.

Wagner will begin play in the NEC Tournament in Atlantic City, NJ on Thursday at either 12:30 pm or 3:30 pm.

Probable Pitching Match-Ups
Game 1 Jr. RHP Chris Barthal (0-7; 7.08 ERA; 41 K; 54.2 IP) vs. So. RHP Kyle Morrison (4-4; 4.31 ERA; 43 K; 56.1 IP)

Game 2 Fr. RHP Jack Wagoner (2-7; 6.11 ERA; 45 K; 53.0 IP) vs. Sr. LHP Joe Testa (6-4; 1.53 ERA; 74 K; 76.1 IP)

Game 3 So. LHP Jared Balbach (4-7; 5.53 ERA; 33 K; 53.2 IP) vs. So. RHP Matt Watson (4-6; 3.34 ERA; 29 K; 59.1 IP)

Game 4 Fr. LHP Matt Fitton (2-7; 8.18 ERA; 25 K; 47.1 IP) vs. Jr. RHP Andy Wells (1-4; 5.20 ERA; 33 K; 45.0 IP)

Notes:
• Head coach Joe Litterio is 10-14 all-time against the Pioneers, including 5-6 in Staten Island.

• Two years ago the Green & White took two-of-three against Sacred Heart before falling in the NEC Tournament as the Pioneers advanced to their only NCAA Regional.

• The Seahawks are 10-4 in games decided by three runs or less during NEC-play after going 6-12 a year ago.

• Wagner ranks 23rd in the nation with a 3.83 ERA. The Seahawks have also posted a NEC-best 2.21 ERA during conference-play.

• Avella is just five hits shy of 100 for his career. Csakai and Drechsel have hit the milestone this year.

• He also leads Wagner with 16 multi-hit games and eight multi-RBI games.

• Testa is sixth nationally with a 1.53 ERA. Over his last 37.0 innings, he has yielded just one earned run while striking out 41 against just seven walks. During NEC-play, he is 4-1 with a 0.66 ERA and 42 K's over 41.0 innings.

• With a win Testa will tie legendary hurlers Bill Willetts and Don Finley for most career wins (19).

• Freshman Jack Rice (Middlesex, NJ / Immaculata) improved to 5-3 in striking out a career-high six while yielding just one run on three hits over 5.0 innings against NYIT. He has now yielded just one earned run over his last 10.0 innings and has a 3.00 ERA in 54.0 innings on the year.

• Huebner collected his school-record 10th save of the year against NYIT. He entered the week 23rd nationally and is now just two off the Wagner career-record of 13.

• Wagner's last three playoff berths came down to the year's final weekend.

• Head coach Joe Litterio has now qualified for the NEC Tournament five times (2000, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008) in his nine years. Previously, the Green & White had made it just twice before (1994, 1997).