STONY BROOK, N.Y. — The Stony Brook baseball team is off to its best conference start in 18 years. And dramatics, along with starting pitching performing at a level not achieved since the College World Series season, helped the success continue on Saturday.
John LaRocca produced a leadoff triple and scored the game-tying run in the bottom of the ninth on
Brett Paulsen's single. And Stony Brook then completed a doubleheader sweep when Paulsen delivered a walk-off squeeze bunt that plated
Evan Fox in the 10th to cap a 6-5 victory in Game 2 at Joe Nathan Field.
In the opener,
Chris Hamilton launched a key homer and
Brian Herrmann tossed his first complete game since before undergoing Tommy John surgery in a 6-2 victory.
Stony Brook extended its winning streak to open America East play to eight games.
The Seawolves (12-7, 8-0 AE) have now swept UAlbany and Hartford in consecutive four-game series.
All four starters in the series —
Sam Turcotte,
Jared Milch, Herrmann and
Nick DeGennaro — went at least seven innings.
The last time Stony Brook had four straight starters go seven innings came April 29-May 6, 2012, when Evan Stecko-Haley, Tyler Johnson, Brandon McNitt and Stecko-Haley again accomplished the feat against UMBC and Binghamton. The Seawolves went to the College World Series that season.
Stony Brook is off to its best conference start since also going 8-0 to open the 2003 America East slate.
"The starting pitching was absolutely spectacular," said coach
Matt Senk, won his 850th career game. "They performed at such a great level against a very, very good team. Coach Kavanaugh did an amazing job calling pitches for them. It's an outstanding job. Any time you get compared with anything that happened in 2012, that's a feather in their caps."
In Game 1, Hamilton evened the score at 2 with a two-run homer in the third. Paulsen then delivered a tiebreaking RBI double the following inning.
Cole Durkan's two-run double and
Johnny Decker's sacrifice fly in the sixth capped the scoring.
Herrmann had a seven-inning complete game, limiting the Hawks to two runs on three hits while striking out eight. It was his first complete game since March 30, 2019, before undergoing reconstructive elbow surgery.
In Game 2, LaRocca staked the Seawolves to a 2-1 led with a two-run homer in the fifth. And DeGennaro handed the ball over to
Brian Morrisey with a 3-1 advantage after tossing a career-high 7 1/3 innings. Hartford ultimately produced four runs in the frame, but the late dramatics kept Stony Brook perfect in America East play.
"My confidence level was high," Senk said about the squeeze play. "We couldn't have had a better bunter. He does a great job of execution in a lot of specialties. So I felt really confident."
Said Paulsen: "At that point it's just on me to get it down. And I did. It was a great team win."
