March 21, 2009

Fairfield Box Score
Holy Cross Box Score

Stony Brook, N.Y. - Senior Marissa Fleury (Mahopac, N.Y.) hit two home runs and drove in four and junior Alyssa Struzenberg (Cooper City, Fla.) struck out 14 batters for Stony Brook's softball team on the way to a two-game sweep of Day One of the Stony Brook Invitational on Saturday. The Seawolves beat Fairfield, 7-2, in their morning game and then topped Holy Cross, 6-4, in the afternoon. The two wins improve Stony Brook to 11-3 on the season.

Struzenberg started off game one against Fairfield with six straight strikeouts and K'd 14 of the 19 batters she faced. The only non-strikeout out recorded by the Seawolves in the first five innings of the game was a sacrifice bunt in the fourth.

The Stags did take advantage of a brief moment of wildness from Struzenberg in the third inning to score their first run. After a leadoff walk, a wild pitch put a runner on second for Kristie Trifiolis, who singled to rightfield to drive in the run. The only other hits off Struzenberg were a single in the fourth and a leadoff home run in the sixth, which chased the junior from the game. Her final line was two runs on three hits and a walk while striking out 14 in five innings.

Offensively, the Seawolves were clicking, picking up ten total hits. Stony Brook took advantage of some sloppy fielding to score its opening run in the first inning, then received a two-out two RBI double to left centerfield by junior Crista Cerrone (Floral Park, N.Y.) in the fourth to open up a 3-1 lead.

In the bottom of the sixth, with the score the same, freshman Suzanne Karath (Fishkill, N.Y.) fouled off five-straight pitches in a 3-2 count before singling through the left side and starting what would be a huge inning for the Seawolves. A single by junior Vicki Kavitsky (Cherry Hill, N.J.) put runners on first and second and Cerrone came through in the clutch again, banging a double off the leftfield wall to score Karath. Two batters later, Fleury took the first pitch of her at-bat over the centerfield fence to give the Seawolves a 7-1 advantage.

Junior Casey Jacobs (Davie, Fla.), who came in relief of Struzenberg in the sixth, induced two groundouts and struck out the last batter to pick up the save and secure the win for Stony Brook.

In game two, Stony Brook used a big second inning to jump ahead of Holy Cross. Senior Molly Kestranek (St. Mary's, Ga.) starting things off with a double to leftfield and eventually scored on a well placed groundout by junior Katelyn O'Donnell (Kingston, Mass.). After a single by Karath, it was Kavitsky who homered this time, taking one over the left centerfield wall for a 3-0 lead.

The Crusaders would not wait long to strike back, however, stringing together three-straight singles in the top half of the third to plate three runs of their own to tie the game. Gwen Reimer and Tiffany Medwid picked up the RBI for Holy Cross.

In the bottom of the third, the game saw its' third-consecutive three run inning as the Seawolves rallied right back. Fleury hit a one-out solo homer for the first run and junior Kendall Blumenthal (Frederick, Md.) lined a single to center for the third run. Kestranek had scored earlier on a wild pitch.

A leadoff homer by Holy Cross in the fourth, followed by a single up the middle, would be the final batters for sophomore starter Colleen Matthes (Severn, Md.) who was replaced by Jacobs. Stony Brook used some great defense by its infield later in the inning, cutting down two runners at the plate, to keep the Crusaders off the board and maintain its 6-4 lead.

Jacobs would allow only one more hit over the final three innings, to earn her second save of the day and give Stony Brook its second win of the Invitational.

Stony Brook plays just one game on the final day of the round-robin tournament, facing Quinnipiac at 2:30 p.m.