NORFOLK, Va. – Wagner scored four times in the top of the ninth to rally and take a back-and-forth season-opener from Norfolk State, 11-10 on Friday afternoon at
Marty L. Miller Field.
Trailing 10-7 after eight frames, the Seahawks worked three walks in the inning, one with the bases loaded, to start the rally. Freddy Sabido's two-run single tied the game and Tyler Sanfilippo's sacrifice fly gave Wagner the lead.
NSU threatened with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Both
Brandon Crosby and
Alsander Womack worked works off reliever Kevin Wiseman. But Wiseman induced a popout off the bat of
Caleb Ward to end it.
The Spartans came out swinging, tallying 15 hits in the game. Womack and
Stephen Baughan had four hits apiece, which ties the career high for both hitters. Baughan hit a two-run homer and Womack scored a career-high four runs to lead four Spartans who had multi-hit games.
Baughan's RBI single and
Korey Singh's two-run single gave NSU a 3-0 lead in the first. Wagner tied it on Griffin Schneider's three-run blast in the second, but the Spartans tacked on three more in the third on Womack's run-scoring single and Baughan's two-run homer.
Wagner scored twice in the third and once each in the fourth and fifth frames to pull ahead 7-6. But the Spartans reclaimed the advantage in the sixth. Womack and Ward led off the inning with singles, and Baughan and
Mason Velasquez knocked them in with a pair of sacrifice flies.
Velasquez added an RBI single and Hosley scored a run with a double play groundout in the eighth as the Spartans stretched their advantage to 10-7.
Womack was 4-for-5 and Baughan finished 4-for-4. Velasquez went 3-for-4 in his first game with the Spartans, and Ward was 2-for-4 with three runs scored.
Wagner was led by Schneider, Sabido, David Melfi and Mike Ruggiero with two hits apiece. The Seahawks also drew 11 walks.
NSU pitchers tallied 15 strikeouts on Friday, led by seven from starter
Alex Wright and six from reliever
Seth Hockett.
The teams face each other again at 2 p.m. Saturday.
