April 9, 2008
Box Score
Staten Island, NY - Vin Avella's (Matawan, NJ / CBA) walk-off RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning capped a 4-5 day at the plate for the sophomore slugger while propelling the Seahawks to a 4-3 win over No. 22 St. John's at Richmond County Bank Ballpark. With the win, Wagner skipper Joe Litterio picked up his first-ever win over a nationally-ranked opponent while setting the school-record for career wins with his 150th, moving past legendary baseball and basketball coach Herb Sutter.
With one out in the ninth, sophomore Joe Conforti (Staten Island, NY / Farrell) drew a full-count walk. Classmate Damian Csakai (Freehold, NJ / Freehold) moved Conforti over to second with a single to center. St. John's then appeared to be on its way to extending the game to extra innings when Justin Gutsie induced a pop-up for the second out. Avella would have none of that, ripping a 0-1 pitch to left field that allowed the speedy Conforti to easily beat the throw home while giving the Seahawks the come-from-behind 4-3 win.
Wagner evens it record at 12-12 while St. John's falls to 23-7.
Avella's four hits matched a career-high and paced a Wagner attack that rattled St. John's pitchers for 11 base knocks as seven different Seahawks hit safely. The Red Storm, meanwhile, could only muster seven hits vs. Seahawk pitching.
Freshman Ian Karlsson (Brooklyn, NY / Xaverian) struck out one over 2.0 scoreless innings to pick up his first collegiate win and improve to 1-0. Junior Andy Wells (Staten Island, NY / Siena) started and was impressive, striking out three while yielding just two runs, one earned, in a season-best 5.0 innings of work.
Justin Gutsie (3-3) took the loss, yielding one run over two-thirds of an innings.
Wagner picked up right where it left off in their four-game sweep of LIU with a first-inning run against St. John's. Junior Chris Drechsel (Cranford, NJ / Cranford) laced a double to deep center with one out. Avella brought Drechsel around with a RBI single to right field on the first pitch he saw to make it 1-0 Wagner.
St. John's would tie the game up at 1-1 in the third with a two-out rally. Gino Matias singled up the middle and was moved over to second when Chris Anninos was hit by a pitch. Paul Karmas singled through the left side, plating Matias and tying up the score.
The Seahawks reassumed the lead at 2-1 in the fourth. Avella led off with a double to right field. Freshman Joe Jamison (West Caldwell, NJ / James Caldwell) followed with a single to center that scored Avella. Wagner had a chance to add to the lead but stranded runners at the corners.
The Red Storm continued their cat and mouse game with the Seahawks evening up the score at 2-2 with an unearned run in the sixth. After reaching on an error, Gil Zayas scored later on in the frame with on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Michael Acardi.
St. John's took its first lead of the game at 3-2 in the seventh when Chris Karmas' two-out single to center scored Scott Ferrara.
Wagner tied the game at 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth. Avella led off with his second double of the game. Sophomore Matt Logan (Wall, NJ / Wall) singled through the right side with one out, allowing Avella to cross the plate for the second time on the day while setting the stage for the Seahawks' dramatic walk-off win.
Avella added two doubles on the day and Logan went 2-4 with a double to lead the Seahawk offense. Karmas went 2-5 with two RBI to pace St. John's.
The Green & White will lock horns with preseason Northeast Conference (NEC) favorite Monmouth, hosting a four-game series this weekend, starting on Friday at 3 pm with a nine-inning contest.
Notes: Wagner is now 9-3 on the year in games decided by three runs or less after going 8-22 a year ago ... Avella has hit safely in six-straight games, going 11-21 during that time with six runs, three doubles and three RBI ... His average has jumped 75 points during this stretch from .219 to a team-best .294 ... The Seahawks are 2-0 against the BIG EAST, also defeating Villanova on the road, and has games remaining at Seton Hall and Rutgers ... Wagner had lost 13 in a row to the Red Storm, including all previous eight match-ups during the Litterio regime ... The last time Litterio had been part of a victory over St. John's was on April 2, 1992 when as a player, his Scarlet Knight squad beat the Red Storm in Piscataway by a 10-8 count.
