Buffalo, NY – A beautiful day in downtown Buffalo saw the D'Youville Baseball Team take the field at Coca-Cola Field against the Penn State-Altoona Lions and split a doubleheader, winning the first game 2-0 and losing the second game 12-3.

In game one, one of the team's seniors stole the show on senior day. Leadoff hitter Matt Wendling (Cheektowaga, NY/Maryvale) walked to lead off the inning. He then stole second and advanced to third when Eric Simoncelli (Hamburg, NY/Hamburg) grounded out to the shortstop. The shortstop Travis Macrides (Manlius, NY/Fayetteville-Manlius) singled in Wendling for the game's first run.

In the bottom of the third, Wendling was at it again. Earning his second walk of the game, the speedy infielder stole second and then took third to get into great scoring position with no outs. His smart baserunning would pay off for the team as fellow senior Kyle Taylor (Lancaster, NY/Lancaster) hit a sac-fly to drive in Wendling for his and the team's second run, giving D'Youville the 2-0 lead.

Pitcher Dan Fox (Cheektowaga, NY/Maryvale) was dealing all game long. A 2-0 lead was all the junior needed as he allowed no runs in 7 innings to pick up his third win of the season. With a 1 run lead in the third, Fox picked up all 3 outs in the inning via strikeout. In the fifth and sixth innings, Fox would strike out 4 batters combined. The righty struck out 10 batters and allowed 4 hits in his first complete game of the season.

Macrides and Taylor picked up the only 2 RBIs of the game, as Wendling stole 4 bases and scored both runs. Before the game, a third senior, Brian Mattina-Chmiel (Orchard Park, NY/Canisius) was also honored for his career as Spartan.

Game two didn't see the same success for the Spartans as they were defeated 12-3. After no score in the first two innings, the Lions would put runs up in four straight innings. In innings three through six, Penn State-Altoona would score 10 runs to take a commanding lead.

D'Youville would score their first run of the game in the fourth inning off the bat of Nick Ivanoff (Scranton, PA/West Scranton). To begin the inning, Eric Simoncelli would double. Travis Macrides would move Simoncelli over to third where he would score on a sac-fly from Ivanoff.

The second run for the Spartans would come from another sac-fly. Jordan Iannarelli (Grand Island, NY/Grand Island) walked for the first baserunner of the inning. The team's batting average leader, Thomas Brummer (Amherst, NY/St. Joe's) came to bat and doubled, moving Iannarelli to third. After taking over at third base in the previous inning, Chris Ferril (Buffalo, NY/DaVinci) came to bat and hit a sac-fly to center field to score the team's second run.

Penn State would add 2 more runs in the top of the eighth, taking a 12-2 lead. In the bottom of the ninth, Louis Reynolds (Batavia, NY/Notre Dame) singled to start the bottom half of the inning. Pitcher Steve Vik (Hopkins, SC/Lower Richland) hit into a fielder's choice to reach base. With back-to-back walks to Brummer and Ferril, Kyle Taylor walked to force in the team's final run of the game.

Ivanoff picked up the loss in game two of the doubleheader, going 5 innings and allowing 6 earned runs. Iannarelli and Vik each pitched 2 innings in relief. Ferril, Taylor and Ivanoff all picked up RBIs, with Reynolds leading the team in hits with 2.

The next game for the Spartans is tomorrow, April 26^th against Hilbert at 1/3:30pm at Centennial Park.