April 22, 2006

Game 1
Game 2

Stony Brook, N.Y. - The Stony Brook baseball team swept a doubleheader on a soggy Saturday afternoon at University Field. The Seawolves utilized a pair of walk-off singles to claim both one run victories. Isidro Fortuna delivered the walk-off single in Game 1 as the Seawolves won 5-4 and then Tom Pennino ripped a walk-off single in Game 2 to lift Stony Brook to the 4-3 win. With the two wins the Seawolves improve to 14-20 on the year and 6-4 in America East play.

In Game 1, the Hawks opened up the scoring in the top of the first inning when they took advantage of a Seawolf error to plate an unearned run and jump to the early 1-0 lead. Stony Brook answered in the bottom of the frame, when Andres Perez scored on a Fortuna RBI ground-out to even the score at 1-1.

Hartford would reclaim the lead in the top of the third, when Frank Cippola belted the RBI double to plate Bryan Propst.

Stony Brook scored three runs in the fifth inning to grab a 4-2 lead, which started with a Perez bases loaded walk. Chris Sipp followed with an RBI bunt single and the Seawolves tacked on their third run of the inning when Perez scored off of a Hartford mishap in the field.

With two-outs in the seventh, Hartford strung together a rally. scoring a pair of runs off of three consectutive hits.

The Seawolves responded in the bottom of the seventh, when Fortuna ripped a single through the infield to score Perez and give Stony Brook the 5-4 win in Game 1.

Perez finished Game 1 with three runs and an RBI on a 2-for-3 performance, Sipp went 3-for-5 with an RBI and Fortuna went 1-for-3 with a pair of RBI. Gary Novakowski (3-1) picked up the win for Stony Brook.

In Game 2, the Seawolves jumped to an early 1-0 lead in the first when Perez led off the inning with a single, stole second and later scored on a wild pitch.

Hartford added three runs in the second, when they strung together three hits and took advantage of two Stony Brook errors.

The Seawolves evened things up by scoring two runs in the bottom of the third when Tom Pennino drove in Sipp with an RBI ground-out to shortstop and Fortuna crossed the plate when Rob Leonard reached base on a Hartford error.

The game remained tied through regulation and headed into the tenth all knotted up at 4.

In the top of the tenth inning, Hartford had runners on second and third with nobody out following a Brady Stoufer lead-off single and a defensive miscue for Stony Brook. Stony Brook head coach Matt Senk called Nick Abel in from the bullpen, who struck out three straight batters to end the Hartford threat and take the game to the bottom of the tenth.

In the bottom of the frame, the Seawolves had Perez on third with one out. Hartford elected to intentionally walk Fortuna to face Pennino. Pennino delivered Stony Brook's second walk-off hit in as many games as the senior ripped a pitch to the left-field fence and Perez crossed the plate with the game winning run.

Novakowski threw 7.1 innings of shutout baseball for the Seawolves, striking out six in a no-decision. Nick Abel (2-1) picked up the win, striking out all three batters he faced in the tenth. Perez fueled the offense again, going 2-for-5 with a pair of runs scored. Pennino finished the second game going 2-for-5 with two RBI and Sipp was 1-for-3 with a run scored.

The Seawolves will return to action on Tuesday when they hit the road for a single game at St. Francis (N.Y.) for a non-conference game. First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 P.M.