Buena Vista, Va. – The St. Mary's College of Maryland baseball team and Southern Virginia University split an offensive-charged doubleheader Saturday afternoon. The Seahawks (12-12) claimed a dominating 11-1 victory in the first game before Southern Virginia (4-10) rebounded with a 14-10 win in the second game.

Senior Sam Beatty (Columbia, Md./Hammond) struck out a career-best 10 batters in the first game, improving to 4-2 on the season. Beatty allowed the lone run in the second inning, scattering six hits and walking one Knight in 7.0 innings pitched.

Senior Sam Coe (Bethesda, Md./Walter Johnson) and first-year Jimmy Robey (Kensington, Md./Gonzaga) kept Southern Virginia at one run as the Knights notched just three hits and one walk combined off the duo over the final two innings.

At the plate, St. Mary's scored 11 runs on 18 hits and seven Knight errors. The Seahawks' biggest offensive output came in the top of the seventh inning as the team exploded for five runs to add to their 6-1 lead. Sophomore C Connor Goodie (Rising Sun, Md./Rising Sun) connected on a career-best four hits to pace the Seahawks, adding a run and an RBI.

Junior 1B Jared Eaker (Mechanicsville, Md./Leonardtown) and senior RF Kenny Beyer (Rockville, Md./Richard Montgomery) each tallied three hits while junior CF Brad Dioguardo (Owings mills, Md./Franklin) contributed to the strong offensive play with three RBI and two hits.

St. Mary's seemed to be on its way to a second win as the Seahawks opened up the nightcap with a 6-0 lead through three-and-a-half innings. However, Southern Virginia matched that in its half of the fourth inning, scoring six runs on five hits, one walk, and an error.

The Seahawks broke the 6-6 deadlock with two runs in the top of the sixth inning to stay ahead of Southern Virginia by an 8-6 margin. The Knights got one back in the seventh to close the gap to one. However, the hosts did their damage in the eighth inning with seven runs on four hits, four walks, and an error.

SMCM rallied in the ninth, capitalizing on an error by sophomore P Gage Bigelow (Price, Utah) to push two runs across the plate with two outs on the board, but the comeback was cut short as Bigelow pitched a grounder for the final out. Dioguardo finished the nightcap with three hits, three runs and two RBI to pace the Seahawks offensively while first-year Reid D'Antuono (Ellicott City, Md./Howard) took the loss with 1.2 innings of relief.

St. Mary's will stay on the road for its next contest, traveling to Washington, D.C. to take on Gallaudet University in non-conference action on Tuesday, March 25th at 3:00 p.m.

Facebook: StMarysAthletics

Twitter: @smcseahawks, #SMCMbase, #SeahawkAthletics

Instagram: @smcseahawks