Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 AUBURNDALE, Fla. -- Notre Dame's scoring average continued to trend southward, and West Virginia Wesleyan dominated a pair of morning games, as the Falcons were swept in a doubleheader on Monday.  (Box Scores: Gm-1 | Gm-2)

The Wesleyan Bobcats picked up the twin victories by scores of 5-0 and 11-4, and they evened NDC's Florida record at 2-2.

For NDC, the contests marked games three and four of a nine-game week in the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational, a spring-break tournament involving over 200 collegiate teams from across the nation. In a scheduling oddity, the games also marked a continuation of Notre Dame's West Virginia-only portion of the 2012 slate -- after a season-opening series at Pikeville (Ky.) was snowed out, the Falcons have played each of their first 12 games against a foe from the Mountain State.

For West Virginia Wesleyan (3-6), the victories mark a shot in the arm for a squad that had won just once in seven previous games.

For Notre Dame (5-7), the losses with little offense continue what is now an eight-game slump with the bats.  Since scoring 33 runs in a four-game season-opening series at West Virginia State (Feb. 18-19), the Falcons have averaged just 3.0 runs per game.

Game One
Batting as the visiting team, the Bobcats cruised in the first game.  Wesleyan scored one run in the second and then pieced together two singles, a walk and a sacrifice fly to plate two more in the third.

In the fourth, WVWC scored two more to go up, 5-0.  All five runs were charged to NDC starter Dan Poskocil, who pitched five innings allowing eight hits and a base on balls in his second start of the season.  Poskocil struck out four.

Continuing a trend that started at Concord (W. Va.) last weekend, Notre Dame scuffled offensively.   The Falcons managed just three hits (all singles) in the game and were continually kept off balance by Bobcat starter Aaron Adams, who has now allowed just one run in 11-2/3 innings this season.  Adams lasted five innings on Monday; he walked two and struck out eight.

The loss for NDC marked the second time this season the team has been shut out.

Game Two
Junior right-hander Tyler DeCrapio took the ball in game two, and the veteran hurler found himself down, 2-0, after one inning.  In that first frame, the Bobcats got a bases-loaded, two-run double from senior Aaron Wiegel to take an early lead for a second time in as many games.

The Blue & White got half of that back in the top of the second, when they scored a run after stringing together singles by Taylor Neville, T.J. Deininger and Jon Koepf. But West Virginia Wesleyan countered with another pair of runs in its half of the second.  Those two runs put the Bobcats up, 4-1.

Again, Notre Dame counterpunched right away.  Neville smacked a two-run double in the third, and that closed the Wesleyan lead to 4-3.  The Falcons then knotted the game at 4-4 with a clutch single off the bat of freshman Jared Clovis in the fourth.  That hit -- a base knock to right field with two outs -- plated Koepf who had singled and stolen second base.

But the Bobcats came right back, this time with a big number in the bottom of the fourth inning.  DeCrapio and two relievers (Marc Ineman, Sean Harnish) worked into trouble, and senior Gene Franks made NDC pay with a bases-clearing double to put the Bobcats up, 7-4.  Wesleyan plated a fourth run in that fourth inning go up 8-4.  Then the Bobcats got three unearned runs in the fifth to open up a seven-run lead (11-4).

WVWC rounded out the 10-run win with a three-spot in the sixth.  In that inning, the Bobcats peppered the Notre Dame defense with five singles.

The Bobcats finished the game with 17 hits, the most against NDC in a single game since March 3, 2011.  Aaron Wiegelled the Wesleyan hit parade -- he went 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs.

Shane DeFranco and Pat Ross were Notre Dame's leading hitters in the brunch-time twin bill.  Each collected three singles on the day.


NOTES FROM THE NEST …

MEET THE BOBCATS: West Virginia Wesleyan College was founded in 1890 and has a present-day enrollment of 1,400.  The College is located in Buckhannon, W. Va. (approximately 70 miles south of Morgantown).  Twenty-one Bobcat athletic programs (11 women's, 10 men's) compete as NCAA Division II-affiliated teams and as members of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. … In baseball, WVWC went 26-19 (.578) a year ago (2011) and finished third in the WVIAC South Division.  The Bobcats averaged 5.2 runs per game while yielding 4.7.  Wesleyan's 4.19 ERA last season ranked 69th out of 252 D-II programs.  In 2010, WVWC went 29-12 (.707) and sported the nation's (NCAA-II) third-highest batting average (.370). … Monday's twin bill marked the first meeting between the Falcons and Bobcats.

FAST START: Freshman second baseman Shane DeFranco went 2-for-4 in Monday morning's opener to log the sixth multi-hit game of his young career.  The newcomer from Gahanna, Ohio, came into Monday's action batting .414/.500/.483 (batting/on-base/slugging) on the season.

SCUFFLING AT THE PLATE: NDC's batting troubles didn't start on Monday morning in Florida.  In the Falcons six games preceding Monday's doubleheader against West Virginia Wesleyan, NDC batted just .243/.369/.351.  Over that same stretch, the Falcons batted .190 (11-for-58) with runners in scoring position.

ON DECK: Notre Dame will face its sternest test of the Florida trip when the Falcons square off against Grand Valley State (Mich.), a program that has made five NCAA-II College World Series appearances in the last nine years. The Falcons and Lakers will meet for one nine-inning game on Tuesday afternoon at 3 p.m. … GVSU went 52-5 (.912) last season and advanced to the D-II World Series brackets.  The Lakers are ranked No. 4 on the current National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America poll (Feb. 28).