LOWELL, Mass. — The Stony Brook baseball team officially is off to the best America East start in program history.
Derek Yalon produced a tiebreaking two-run double and
Evan Giordano plated him with a two-run homer in the final inning and the Seawolves rallied for a 6-2 win against UMass Lowell in Game 1 of a doubleheader on Friday at LeLacheur Park.
Stony Brook then improved to 10-0 in league play with a 5-4 victory in 10 innings in Game 2 as Yalon walked with two outs in the extra frame, and advanced around the bases on another walk, passed ball and wild pitch.
It marks the best start to open America East play since Stony Brook joined the conference in 2002. The previous best had been an 8-0 start to open 2003.
"I was just looking for a pitch over the plate that I could get my barrel on," Yalon said about the Game 1 heroics. "And I drove it back up the middle."
In Game 1,
Sam Turcotte shook off a rocky first inning to toss a seven-inning complete game. After surrendering a pair of runs in the opening frame, he blanked the River Hawks the rest of the way, retiring nine straight batters at one point.
Turcotte's effort marked the fifth straight game a Stony Brook starter went seven-plus innings.
Turcotte had started that streak last weekend in a four-game sweep of Hartford, and was followed in that series by
Jared Milch,
Brian Herrmann and
Nick DeGennaro.
"Sam seemed to be a little elevated with his pitches in the first inning," said coach
Matt Senk, who made a mound visit during the frame. "When I walked out to him, I told him to get back to being your old self. He turned it around quick and did a great job from there."
The streak came to an end in Game 2 on. Friday, although Milch nonetheless limited UMass Lowell to one run in 4 2/3 innings as the starter.
Stony Brook took a 4-1 lead to the bottom of the eighth, when Joey Castellanos blasted a two-out two-run homer and Vinnie Martin followed with a single.
Senk then summoned
Kyle Johnson. And although an errant pickoff throw by catcher
Shane Paradine allowed Martin to advance to third base, Johnson stranded him there as the potential tying run with a strikeout looking of Cam Climo.
The River Hawks, though, proceeded to tie the score on Cedric Rose's one-out homer in the ninth. But Stony Brook answered the next half-inning.
Johnson ultimately earned the win in relief.
"It's just a tremendous start to conference play," Senk said. "The work that our players and the coaching staff have put in is nothing short of tremendous."
