PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa. – The Villanova baseball team fell to the LIU-Brooklyn Blackbirds on Friday afternoon at Villanova Ballpark. It was a cloudy and extremely windy day at the ballpark with winds up to 20 mph coming in from left field.

Freshman right handed pitcher Gordon Graceffo got the start on the mound for the Wildcats. He pitched four and two thirds inning allowing 10 hits, seven runs while striking out two.

Jason Applegate, Cameron Mathes and Jimmy Franchetti pitched for the Wildcats. Mathes went two and a third innings allowing six hits, four runs while striking out one. Franchetti pitched one and a third allowing one hit while striking out three.

Timothy Lilly, Pat O'Neil and Sam Margulis led the Wildcats with two hits each. Lilly and O'Neil each had one RBI.

LIU-Brooklyn started the game with two singles in a row and the next batter walked to load the bases. A single to left center field by Briggs scored the first run of the day for the Blackbirds. The next batter walked to make it 2-0. Hallum flied out to left field and Timothy Lilly threw home to get the runner from third for a double play. Griswold singled to right center to score Briggs from second to give the Blackbirds. With runners on the corners, Griswold on first was caught stealing and during the rundown Bechtold scored from third to give LIU-Brooklyn a 4-0 lead.

 In the top of the fourth the Blackbirds had two outs with a runner on second when Monegro singled through the right side to score Griswold. LIU-Brooklyn would score two more runs in the next inning to make it 7-0.

The Wildcats cut into the Blackbirds' lead in the bottom of the fifth. Nick Lorusso singled to right field and then advanced to second after a groundout. Ryan Toohers singled to right field scoring Lorusso from second and then Toohers advanced to second after a throwing error by the second baseman. Lilly singled to left field to score Toohers from second to make it 7-2 LIU-Brooklyn.

LIU-Brooklyn in the top of the sixth had runners on second and third with one out. Vaughn hit a slow rolling ball down the third base line, Cameron Mathes scooped up the ball and tagged the runner heading home.

The Blackbirds extended their lead in the top of the eighth by scoring four runs on five hits.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Blackbirds walked four straight batters to score a run for Villanova and make it 11-3 Blackbirds.

Game two of this three game series is tomorrow March 23rd with first pitch slated for 2:00 p.m. at Villanova Ballpark.