April 5, 2008

Box Score

Stony Brook, N.Y. - Freshman Nick Thode (Huntington Station, N.Y.) hit the go-ahead home run with two outs in the sixth inning as the Stony Brook University baseball team defeated the Binghamton Bearcats, 5-4 to complete a doubleheader sweep on Saturday afternoon at University Field. The Seawolves used a four-run eighth to rally for an 11-9 victory in game one. The Seawolves finish the day 12-11 overall and 2-0 in the America East while the Bearcats fall to 7-17 and 0-2.

The Seawolves entered the bottom of the sixth inning of game two trailing 4-3 but sophomore Jeremy Nowak (Cheektowaga, N.Y.) led off with a home run to left field to tie it up. Binghamton pitcher Jeff Dennis then retired junior Rob Dyer (Selden, N.Y.) to bring up Thode who homered over the right-field wall to give the Seawolves a 5-4 lead. Nowak then came on to pitch and retired the side to pick up his fifth save.

Binghamton took a quick lead on a Ryan James home run in the top of the first but the Seawolves answered with three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning on a Dyer two-run single and an RBI single from junior Steven Mazzurco (Selden, N.Y.).

A James RBI single in the third cut the Stony Brook lead to one and the Bearcats then tied it in the fourth on a run-scoring double from Ken Jacobi. The Bearcats took the lead with another run in the fifth as Jeff Skelhorne-Gross led off with a single and then eventually came around to score on a Joe Charron RBI single.

Senior Gary Novakowski (Prospect, Conn.) picked up the victory for the Seawolves, allowing four runs and nine hits in 6.0 innings. Dennis took the loss for the Bearcats, giving up five runs and six hits in his 6.0 innings of work.

Stony Brook took an early lead in game one as well as sophomore Mike Stephan (Patchogue, N.Y.) smashed a two-run home run with two outs in the first. The scored remained 2-0 until the sixth when the Bearcats got on the board on a Joe Charron solo shot off Stony Brook senior starter Tom Koehler (New Rochelle, N.Y.).

The Seawolves responded with three runs in the bottom of the sixth on a two-run double from Nowak and a RBI single from junior Chad Rebecca (Mount Prospect, Ill.). SBU added two more in the seventh on RBI singles from Nowak and junior Brian Witkowski (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) to build its lead to 7-1.

The Bearcats answered in the eighth though, crossing the plate eight times with the help of two Seawolves errors to take a 9-7 lead. Ken Jacobi had the first big blow of the inning, a base-loaded triple that made it 7-5. But Peter Bregartner had the biggest hit, a two-out three-run home run that gave the Bearcats their first lead of the game at 9-7.

SBU came right back in the bottom of the inning as Rebecca singled to lead off and then came home one batter later on a two-run shot from Dyer. Marshall then gave the Seawolves the lead for good later in the inning, driving in Witkowski with a two-out RBI double to make it 8-7 Stony Brook. A Nowak run-scoring single two batters later made it 9-7.

Nowak led the Seawolves offense with three hits and four RBI while Witkowski and Marshall added three hits apiece. Bregartner paced the Bearcats offense with two hits and three RBI.

The teams will complete their four-game series with a doubleheader on Sunday. Game time is set for Noon.