STONY BROOK, N.Y. — The Stony Brook baseball team surrendered only one earned run in 25 innings during their season-opening three-game series against Sacred Heart.
And that 0.36 ERA has landed the Seawolves as the national ERA leader.
Stony Brook is followed by Lehigh (0.50), St. John's (1.00), Hofstra (1.07) and Stetson (1.56) as the top five ERAs among 232 Division I programs.
"We were hoping that our pitching would pick up where it left off prior to the 2020 season ending due to the pandemic. Thankfully, they did in a big way," coach Matt Senk said. "A tremendous amount of credit for this outstanding first weekend goes to the players for their resilience during these very difficult times, and undoubtedly to the steady mentorship of pitching coach Tyler Kavanaugh."
Jared Milch and Nick DeGennaro set the tone in the season opener, combining on a four-hit, seven-inning shutout in a 1-0 victory over the Pioneers in Game 1 on Friday at Joe Nathan Field.
Sam Turcotte then arguably outshined those gaudy performances in the second game of the doubleheader, a 7-1 victory by Stony Brook.
Turcotte retired the first 21 batters he faced before surrendering a leadoff single in the eighth on his 85th and final pitch. That runner ultimately came around to score after Turcotte departed for the lone earned run charged to the Seawolves in three weekend games.
Although the Seawolves came up short of the sweep with a 2-0 loss on Sunday, the pitching still had a strong storyline in the series finale.
Pitching in a college game for the first time in 687 days,
Brian Herrmann returned from Tommy John surgery and took a scoreless effort into the sixth inning, when a dropped fly ball led to a pair of unearned runs.
Kyle Johnson and
Devin Sharkey — the latter making his collegiate debut — then combined for three scoreless relief innings.
"We've really leaned on our pitching last year, prior to the season being shortened," Senk said. "The guys have picked up where they left off. So the pitchers are doing exactly what we need to do."
Stony Brook (2-1) hosts doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday at noon against UMass.
