Fredericksburg, Va. – The St. Mary's College of Maryland baseball team opened up Capital Athletic Conference action Saturday afternoon, dropping two tough decisions to the University of Mary Washington. The Seahawks and Mary Washington went 14 innings in the opener with UMW earning a 3-2 victory while St. Mary's fell 7-4 in the nightcap.

St. Mary's jumped out to a 2-0 advantage, scoring a single run in the bottom of the first and second. Sophomore Brad Dioguardo (Owings Mills, Md./Franklin) would single with one out and then steal second to put a runner in scoring position in the opening inning. A Jared Eaker (Mechanicsville, Md./Leonardtown) RBI single to right field would bring Dioguardo home and give the Seahawks the early score.

St. Mary's would take advantage of a few Eagle miscues including a pass ball and error to push their second run of the game across and take a two-run lead. The score would remain the same until the top of the sixth inning when the University of Mary Washington rallied for two runs in the inning to knot the score at 2-2.

The two teams would go scoreless over the next seven and half innings before the Eagles pushed the game-winning run across the plate in the bottom of the 14th for the 3-2 victory.

Junior Sam Beatty (Columbia, Md./Hammond) got the start in game one for St. Mary's, going 6.1 innings and giving up two runs (one earned) on six hits with three strikeouts. Beatty was replaced in the bottom of the seventh by junior Sam Coe (Bethesda, Md./Walter Johnson), who pitched a solid 5.2 innings in relief. Coe did not allow a single run while surrendering only three hits and striking out three Eagle batters. Sophomore Ryan Deller (Glen Burnie, Md./Glen Burnie) suffered the loss, giving up one run on three hits in 1.0 inning of relief.

In the nightcap, the Seahawks would again jump out to an early lead, scoring three runs in the top of the second inning to take a 3-0 advantage. Sophomore Zach Nadolny (Bel Air, Md./Bel Air) led off the inning with a single to left field and advanced to second on a walk to Eaker. Junior Alex Lenovitz (Baltimore, Md./Calvert Hall) laid down a sacrifice bunt to move both runners over, putting Seahawks on second and third with only one out. An error by the Mary Washington pitcher would allow Nadolny and Eaker to score the first two runs of the game. St. Mary's would eventually push one more run across the plate and end the top of the second with the 3-0 lead.

Mary Washington would score one run in the bottom of the fourth and three more in the bottom of the fifth to surge to a 4-3 lead after five innings of action. The Seahawks would answer with the game-tying run in the top of the sixth, utilizing an RBI double by senior Mike Schmidt (Burtonsville, Md./Blake) to score senior Stefano Muscatelli (Warwick, R.I./Toll Gate) who reached earlier in the inning off an error by the Eagle second baseman.

The Eagles would respond right away with three runs in the bottom of the sixth. St. Mary's would be unable to answer in the top of the seventh as Mary Washington took the nightcap, 7-4. Mary Washington doubled up St. Mary's in hits on the day, 24-12, while the Eagles struck out 10 St. Mary's batters to eight strikeouts by the Seahawks.

Senior Wick Eisenberg (Towson, Md./Friends School) suffered the loss in game two, giving up seven runs (five earned) on 12 hits in 5.1 innings on the mound. Four different Seahawks recorded an RBI on the day while Muscatelli led St. Mary's with two runs scored.

St. Mary's will be back on the field tomorrow as the Seahawks return to the University of Mary Washington to complete the final game of the three-game conference series. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 pm.

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