St. Mary's City, Md. – The St. Mary's College of Maryland baseball team earned a split in today's afternoon doubleheader against the SUNY College at Old Westbury Panthers, falling in game one 9-3 and rebounding for the 5-1 victory in game two.

In game one, Old Westbury scored three in the first and four more runs in the second to secure early control of the game.  St. Mary's got on the board in the bottom of the first inning as junior Corey Napier (Hollywood, Md./St. Mary's Ryken) doubled to leftfield, scoring senior John Stewart (Annapolis, Md./St. Mary's Annapolis) who reached base on a walk one batter prior.  St. Mary's trailed 3-1 heading into the second inning of action.

Following the Panthers four-run top of the second, highlighted by a three-run home run off the bat of senior Anthony Orsano (Williston Park, Md./St. Dominic), the Seahawks responded with a run in the bottom of the inning.  Back-to-back singles by senior Nick Urso (Newtown, Conn./Newtown) and first-year Zach Nadolny (Sparks, Md./Bel Air) to start the inning followed by a walk to junior Luke Trout (Baldwin, Md./Calvert Hall College) loaded the bases with no outs.  After a short fly ball out, first-year Brad Dioguardo (Owings Mills, Md./Franklin) reached first on an error by the Old Westbury first baseman to score Urso from third.

A run in the fourth by the Seahawks narrowed the Panther lead to 7-3; however, that would be the last of the scoring for St. Mary's as Old Westbury tacked on two runs in the top of the seventh for the 9-3 final.

Sophomore Bobby Stouffer (Kensington, Md./Albert Einstein) suffered the loss in game one as he struggled with his control, walking four in an inning and two-thirds for six runs on three hits.  Senior E.J. Nadolny (Sparks, Md./Bel Air) came in to relieve Stouffer, pitching a strong 4.1 innings and surrendering only one run on two hits.

The nightcap saw St. Mary's jump ahead early, scoring two runs in the second and three in the fourth.  Z. Nadolny got the offense started in the second with a double down the leftfield line to lead off the inning, followed by a single off the bat of sophomore Alex Lenovitz (Glyndon, Md./Calvert Hall College) for runners on first and third with no outs.  Two consecutive outs almost stalled the inning for the Seahawks; however, a clutch single by first-year Luke Green (Bowie, Md./DeMatha Catholic) to leftfield brought home Nadolny and a fielding error by the leftfielder allowed Lenovitz to also cross the plate, putting St. Mary's ahead 2-0.

Old Westbury cut the St. Mary's lead in half with a run in the top of the fourth, igniting a response by the Seahawk offense.  With one out, Green reached first on an error by the third baseman which seemed to rattle the Panthers' pitcher as the Seahawks reeled off back-to-back singles by Dioguardo and Stewart to load the bases.  Another error, this time by the right fielder, allowed Green to score and Napier to reach first to keep the bases loaded as St. Mary's went up 3-1.  With two outs in the inning, Z. Nadolny delivered again with a single to leftfield, bringing home Dioguardo and Stewart for the eventual final score of 5-1.

Z. Nadolny had a stellar afternoon, pitching three strong innings in game two to earn his first win of the season and giving up just the one run on three hits while striking out four.  In addition to his work on the mound, Nadolny was 4-for-5 in the doubleheader at the plate, scoring two runs and picking up two RBI to boost his team- and conference-leading total to 22.  Senior Mike Victory (Westford, Mass./Westford Academy) relieved Nadolny in the fourth, pitching three hitless innings to maintain the Seahawk lead.

St. Mary's returns to the diamond this weekend when they travel to Capital Athletic Conference rival No. 7 Salisbury University for a three-game series.  The teams are scheduled for a doubleheader Saturday, March 24 and the first pitch is slated for 1:00 pm while the clubs will conclude the series on Sunday with a single game set to begin at 1:00 pm as well.