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Plymouth Meeting, PA - Villanova scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to break open what was a close game en route to posting a 7-3 win over Wagner in the series opener between the teams at the Villanova Ballpark.

With the win, the WIldcats improve to 8-15 while the Seahawks fall to 2-16.

Villanova opened up the scoring thanks to Max Beermann's two-run homer in the bottom of the first.

After threatening in the second, the Green & White got on the board in the top of the third on senior Chris Smith's (Tampa, FL / Ellsworth CC (IA)) solo home run to left field.

The Wildcats immediately answered in the bottom part of the frame with a Connor Jones two-run homer that extended the lead out to 4-1.

In the top of the fourth, Wagner got one run back but the damage could have been greater. Junior Tommy Mazurkiewicz (Neshanic Station, NJ / Somerville) led off with a walk before moving to second on sophomore John Lynn's (Wallingford, PA / Salesianum School (DE)) one-out infield single. Classmate Vaughn Champion (Galloway, NJ / Absegami) followed with a single of hiw own up the middle to score Mazurkiewicz and trim the deficit to 4-2. the Seahawks would go on to load up the bases only to be denied when VU starter Josh Harris induced an inning-ending pop up.

Mazurkiewicz would be right back at it in the top of the fifth with a RBI double to left field that plated junior Nick Dini (Monroe Township, NJ / Monroe Township) to make it a 4-3 game.

After seeing a multitude of offense over the first four-plus innings, the pitching took over as there was a combined two hits over the next three frames.

Villanova broke the offensive lull with three runs, two unearned, in the bottom of the eighth on two hits and one big error in opening up its largest lead of the game at 7-3.

Freshman Brendan Benecke (Jackson, NJ / Jackson Liberty) led off with the ninth with a single only to be erased one play later on a double play grounder before RHP Matthew Meurer struck out the final batter of the game to close out the game.

In defeat, Smith went 2-for-4 with a solo home run while Mazurkiewicz was 2-for-3 with a RBI double and a run to lead an eight-hit Green & White attack.

Senior RHP Ryan Casey (Paramus, NJ / St. Joseph Regional) fell to 0-4 on the season, yielding four runs on eight hits over 6.1 innings of work with five strikeouts.

Wildcat relief ace Matt Lengel (2-1) earned the win, striking out five over 3.2 innings of one-hit relief.

The teams return to action tomorrow at 11:00 am.

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