STONY BROOK, N.Y. — The America East regular-season champions will have to work without a safety net the rest of the conference tournament.

America East Pitcher of the Year Nicholas Sinacola limited the Stony Brook baseball team to a solo homer by Cole Durkan in seven innings of work and Maine defeated the Seawolves, 4-2, on the opening day of the conference tourney at Joe Nathan Field.

Stony Brook, which set an America East record with 25 conference wins during the regular season, will face UAlbany on Friday at 10 a.m. in an elimination game. The Great Danes fell to NJIT on Thursday.

Stony Brook went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position against Sinicola during his seven innings on the mound.

"We didn't fully execute the plan against him," coach Matt Senk said. "We knew he was going to be heavy breaking ball. And we let too many pitches go by with two strikes, knowing that it was more than likely going to be his best pitch. That's unfortunate. I think we could have done a better job against him. That being said, there is a reason he's the Pitcher of the Year. He did a terrific job. He's an outstanding pitcher. We just needed to be more aggressive."

Sinicola departed with a 3-1 lead. And Chris Hamilton greeted Maine reliever Matthew Pushard with a one-out double in the eighth. John Tuccillo then followed with an RBI single to pull the Seawolves within 3-2.

However, Tuccillo got caught between second and third on Brad Hipsley's ensuing single for the inning's second out. And after a single from Stanton Leuthner advanced Hipsley to second base, Stony Brook's threat stalled there.

"He came around hard, and when he put the brakes on, he slipped," Senk said about the out on the basepaths. "It just seemed like that was how the game went."

Maine tacked on an insurance run in the ninth.

Nick DeGennaro limited the Black Bears to three runs on seven hits while striking out a career-high-matching 11 in eight innings. He tossed 122 pitches.

"He left it all out there for us," Senk said. "He got hurt with the long ball.  The long ball really killed us today, obviously. I'm sure he would like to have those pitches back. His effort was tremendous. Hopefully the rest of the pitchers do what he did, with the effort he put forth, the rest of the tournament."