TEANECK, N.J. - The Knights were back in action Saturday afternoon after a tough loss on Friday evening. They played host to the Wagner Seahawks in the second game of a three game set. FDU mounted another huge comeback to take down the Seahawks 7-6 with a walk-off base hit in the 9th inning.
Wagner took an early lead when they got runs off of Knights starter
Rich Racobaldo in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th innings. Keeping the ball in the park has been the biggest challenge for FDU's staff and it once again hurt them when Racobaldo gave up home runs to Mateo Matthews and Dante Faicchio in the early innings which helped give Wagner a 4-0 lead heading into the bottom of the 4th. The deficit did not stop the Knights; they once again began to climb out of the hole they were in when
Nicholas Mazzotta walked with the bases loaded to pick up and RBI and cut the Seahawk lead down to 4-1.
The comeback really began in the 5th inning after David Melfi extended the Wagner lead to 6-1 with a two-run shot to center field. In the bottom of the inning
Hunter D'Amato stepped to the plate with
Brian Sanders and
Justin Sierra on-base as he belted a three-run homer to center field to kickstart the Knights offense; the Wagner lead was cut down to 6-4 heading into the last four innings of play.
Manager
Manny Roman went to the bullpen to start the 6th inning and gave the ball to
Nicholas Feretic who silenced the Seahawks offense for 3.1 innings pitched. Feretic gave up zero hits and zero runs while striking out five in his relief outing to keep the Knights in striking distance for a comeback. The Burgundy and Blue comeback was not complete until
Luke Cantwell stepped up to the plate as the tying run in the 8th inning. Cantwell, who mashed three home runs in yesterday's game deposited a ball into right field to tie the game up at six a piece with his seventh home run of the season.
Feretic went out for his fourth inning of work in the top of the 9th in a now tied game; he recorded one out and walked two batters before
Patrick Gardner came in on relief to get the Knights to the bottom of the inning. Gardner only need six pitches before forcing Chris Conniff into an inning ending 6-4-3 double play; the Knights entered the bottom of the 9th only needing one run to walk it off.
George Rosales and
Tom Ruscitti opened the inning by drawing back-to-back walks before Brain Sanders flew out to advance Rosales to third base and D'Amato was intentionally walked to set up a force out at any base.
Joan Sosa, the Knights six hole hitter drilled a ball into the right field gap for a thrilling walk-off finish for the Knights.
FDU and Wagner will matchup on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. for a rubber match of their so-far thrilling three-game set.
