East Providence, R.I. – The Johnson & Wales baseball team opened the home portion of the 2010 schedule with an 8-4 setback against WPI at Pierce Field on Tuesday afternoon.

Johnson & Wales took the early lead when they tallied three straight two-out singles together in the bottom of the first inning with Teddy Katz's (Pittsburgh, Pa.) base hit platting Nick Alosco (Mahopac, N.Y.) to give the Wildcats the 1-0 lead.

WPI took the lead in the top of the second when Jameson Kokolis (Manchester, NH) notched a two-run single. The Engineers increased the advantage to 5-1 an inning later on RBI singles by Paul Galligan (Weymouth, Mass.) and Mike Swanton (Foxboro, Mass.) and a sacrifice fly from Nick Bean (Middleboro, Mass). After a scoreless fourth frame, Matt Moreau (Manchester, Mass) blasted a two-run homer to left center and Mitch McClune (Pembroke, Mass) added a run-producing double to go ahead by four runs.

Johnson & Wales rallied and got a run back in the bottom of sixth on a Nick Simon (Rumford, R.I.) solo homer and two more in the seventh on an Alosco RBI single and a wild pitch. That would be as close as the Wildcats would get, however as WPI held on for the 8-4 victory.

Ryan Marques (Gloucester, Mass) improved to 2-0 on the season, working the first six innings while Thomas Whiting (Farmington Hills, MI) tossed perfect 1-2-3 frames in the eighth and ninth innings respectively to gain his fourth save of the season.

Jeff Jordan (Woodbridge, N.J.) falls to 0-3 with the setback while Marc Sommerhalter (Emerson, N.J.) tossed three scoreless innings of relief.

Moreau and Alosco both tallied three hits while Mark Dignum (Albany, NY) chipped in with two doubles for the Engineers and Waldis Garcia (Lowell, MA) notched a pair of singles for JWU.

JWU is now 0-9 for the season while WPI improves to 7-0 for the year. The Wildcats will return to action on Wednesday, March 17th when they travel to Coast Guard for a non-conference contest at 3:00 p.m.