SPARTANBURG, South Carolina – The Marist baseball team dropped its first doubleheader of the season, with 18-4 and 7-5 losses at the Wofford Terriers on Saturday.

SUMMARY GAME 1:

The Terriers opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning. A leadoff double was followed by a walk and an RBI single through the left side by the following batter gave Wofford the 1-0 lead.

One inning later, the Terriers extended their lead with a leadoff single, followed by a fielder's choice. A second fielder's choice and a throwing error by the shortstop two batters later set up men on first and third and after a stolen base at second, an two RBI single up the middle gave Wofford the 3-0 lead.

Marist got on the board in the top of the fourth when junior Frankie Gregoire singled up the middle with two outs. Redshirt senior Greg Kocinski followed with a double down the left field line and redshirt junior Jordan Roper laced an RBI single to right field that score Gregoire and trimmed the deficit to 3-1.

For the third straight inning, the Terriers scored in the bottom of the fourth on a leadoff single with a throwing error by the second baseman that was then followed by a two run home run to left field. Two batters later, a single through the left side put a Wofford runner on first and two batters later a single was then followed by a baulk by the pitcher to put runners on second and third. The next batter smacked a three run home run to left field and it was 8-1 Terriers.

Wofford broke open the game in the bottom of the sixth inning with nine runs on six hits, including a three RBI double, two solo home runs, a two RBI single, an RBI single and two Red Fox errors to take the 17-1 lead.

Marist got two runs back in the top of the seventh with a Kocinski leadoff walk, followed by single by freshman pinch hitter Reece Armitage. Kocinski and Armitage advanced to second and third on a fly out and after freshman Gene Napolitano pinch hit and walked to load the bases, freshman Nick Cantone hit a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Kocinski. During the next at bat, Armitage scored on a wild pitch and it was 17-3 Terriers.

After a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh gave Wofford an 18-3 lead, the Red Foxes got a run in the top of the eighth when Kocinski smacked a solo home run to left center, his second of the season, bringing the score to 18-4.  

KEY STATS:

• The Terriers outhit Marist 18-6
• Wofford batted .439 while the Red Foxes hit 186
• Marist made five errors in the game, leading to three unearned runs, while the Terriers made no errors

SUMMARY GAME 2:

The Red Foxes opened the scoring in the top of the first inning when junior Randy Taveras singled with one out. Kocinski followed with a single to right field that advanced Taveras to third and Gregoire hit an RBI sac fly to right field that scored Taveras. Senior Andrew Rouse followed with an RBI single and advanced to second on the throw home and redshirt junior Chris Tracz laced an RBI double to left center that scored Rouse, giving Marist the 3-0 lead.

???????Wofford answered in the bottom of the inning with back-to-back singles to start off, followed by a fielder's choice that nailed the runner at home on the Romanelli-Rouse-Tracz relay. A two RBI single by the batter scored both runners and after one inning it was 3-2 Red Foxes.

Two innings later, the Terriers took the lead with a leadoff double and an RBI single two batters later. A ground out and a passed ball advanced the runner to third and an RBI single by the next batter gave Wofford the 4-3 lead.

Marist answered in the top of the fourth when Armitage doubled to left with one out and advanced to third on a fly out. Roper walked and during the next at bat, Armitage scored on a pickoff of Roper on a pitcher-first baseman, second baseman-first baseman relay to tie things up at 4-4.

In the bottom of the inning, Wofford regained the lead at 5-4 on a two out hit by pitch and RBI double down the right field line.

The Terriers extended their lead to 7-4 with runs in the fifth and seventh innings. Down 7-4 with three outs remaining, the Red Foxes trimmed the deficit to 7-5 with a one out single by Napolitano and a two out RBI triple by Taveras. Kocinski followed with a hit by pitch to put the tying run on base but the comeback didn't happen as the next Marist batter struck out swinging to end the game.

KEY STATS:

• Wofford outhit the Red Foxes 12-9
• The Terriers left 10 runners on base, while Marist left 8
• The Red Foxes committed 3 errors, while Wofford made two

GAME NOTES FROM THE DAY:

• Senior Charlie Jerla struck out his 162^nd batter in the third inning of Game 1 to move into 10^th place all-time in program history.
• Freshman Alex Pansini made his first career appearance in Game 1 and struck out his first career batter
• Freshman Trevor Backman made his second career appearance in Game 1 and recorded his first career shutout outing, pitching 1 inning of scoreless ball
• Kocinski's two hits in Game 1 marked his second straight multi-hit game and fifth of the season
• Senior Matt Iantosca extended his hitting streak to four games in Game 1 and gave him at least one hit in nine of 10 games played this year. His double also marked the second straight game he's picked up a two bagger
• Roper's hits in Game 1 and 2 extend his hitting streak to four games and his RBI in Game 1 marked the second straight game with at least one RBI
• Taveras' three hits in Game 2 marked a season high and his one run, three hits and one RBI marked the first time this season he's finished with at least one run, hit and RBI in the same game
• Kocinski's three hits and three runs scored on the day extend his hitting streak and runs scored streak to three games
• Rouse's hit, run scored and RBI in Game 2 marked the second game this season he's had at least one of each in a single game
• Armitage's run scored in both games extended his run scored streak to three games and marks the fourth game his scored a run in six career games played
• Napolitano's hit and run scored in Game 2 marked his first career hit and run scored

UP NEXT:

Marist will conclude the three game series at Wofford on Monday at 6 p.m.