Game #1 - WPI 3, St. Joseph's (ME) 2 (9 inn.)
Game #2 - St. Joseph's (ME) 15, WPI 14

Game #1 Box Score
Game #2 Box Score 

Lakeland, FL ---  WPI Baseball kicked off the 2009 season with a doubleheader split vs. St. Joseph's (ME) in the Russmatt Baseball Central Florida Invitational on Sunday. The Engineers begin their season with a 1-1 mark.

WPI started their day with a come-from-behind extra inning victory over St. Joe's on the back of Conor Fahey (Cumberland, RI) who turned in a stellar pitching performance. Fahey pitched eight strong innings of five-hit ball, registering 13 strikeouts against only one walk, keeping the Engineers in the game with the Monks. The 13 Ks were a career-high for Fahey, who will likely pitch again in Florida on Saturday before the team returns to Worcester next week.

WPI got a boost in the second inning via a solo home run by Scott McNee (Falmouth, MA) that carried out to right-center, giving the Crimson and Gray a 1-0 lead. St. Joseph's responded with two runs on three hits in the fourth inning. Fahey would settle down after the fourth, as he did not surrender a hit the rest of the way, striking out the side in the fifth and sixth innings en route to seven consecutive Ks. 

The Engineers tied it up in the sixth inning, scoring a run on two hits by the middle infield tandem of 2B Mark Dignum (Albany, NY) and SS Paul Galligan (Weymouth, MA). The pair combined to reach base seven times during the game. WPI threatened in the bottom of the seventh but failed to score, pushing the game into extra innings before pushing across the winning run in the ninth on four St. Joe's walks.

Thomas Whiting (Farmington Hills, MI) picked up the win for the Engineers, pitching a scoreless ninth.

The second game of the day was the mirror opposite of the first, as the pitchers for both sides had their share of difficulties. Dignum and Galligan kept the WPI hit parade going, reaching base a combined eight times. After WPI tallied a run in the top of the first, St. Joe's responded with a run in the bottom of the frame and two more in the third to take a 3-1 lead. The Engineers came back with back-to-back RBI triples in the fourth in a four run inning that gave them a 5-3 lead. It was short-lived, however, as seven Monks crossed the plate in the bottom of the fourth to jump out to a 10-5 lead.

WPI would continue to come back, scoring five runs in the fifth that were keyed by a mammoth home run by Cody McGregor (Westfield, MA) that sailed beyond the left field wall and over the bleachers on the adjacent football field. Despite the rally, the Crimson and Gray would not be able to gain the one run they needed to take the lead in game two, repeatedly tying the score but failing to gain the lead. The Monks tallied four runs in the bottom of the sixth, taking a 14-10 lead into the last half of the seventh.

St. Joe's pitching had a seventh inning they'd like to forget, allowing the Engineers to once again tie the game as a result of six walks and a pair of wild pitches in the inning. Knotted at 14-all in the bottom of the seventh, St. Joseph's scored the winning run on a HBP, error and RBI double to gain a split of the doubleheader.

Madison Paulino (Worcester, MA) suffered the loss in game two to begin the 2009 campaign 0-1.

WPI will spring back into action on Monday, continuing their southern trip with another doubleheader vs. Pitt-Greensburg, beginning at 1pm in nearby Winter Haven, Florida.

Story written by Ray Cotrufo '98 - WPI Athletics Department