STONY BROOK, N.Y. — After a steady seven innings of play that saw Stony Brook and UMBC split four runs evenly, a frenetic finish unfolded, capped by
Stanton Leuthner's first career walk-off blast that gave the Seawolves a 5-4 win in the Friday opener at Joe Nathan Field.
The New Providence, N.J, native launched his first career walk off home run over the left field fence to end a topsy-turvy final two innings that saw a tie or lead change in each of the final half-innings.
UMBC took the lead in the top of the eighth on a two-out home run to left, making it 3-2 to the visitors.
Evan Giordano gave the Seawolves the advantage back in the bottom half, lining a two-run shot to the left of the batters' eye to put the hosts three outs from a win.
The Retrievers re-tied the game in the top of the ninth on a two-run double off the wall in right, setting the stage for Stanton's game-winning shot.
Stony Brook took the early lead in the first, with
Shane Paradine and
Matt Brown-Eiring recording back-to-back, run-scoring hits to give their squad a 2-0 lead in the opening frame.
Friday's visitors scored three unanswered, with one in the third, fifth and eighth, the latter run being the two-run homer to give the Retrievers their first lead of the day.
STATS AND NOTES
- Paradine has reached double-figures, getting on-base in 10 consecutive.
- Leuthner's home run is his sixth of the year and 11th of his career. He now has 30 RBI on the season.
- Brown-Eiring has recorded a RBI in five consecutive contests, totaling 10 over that span. He has also driven in a run in nine of his last 12.
- Giordano has driven in 10 runs over the last four games and has multi-RBI contests in three of his last four outings.
- Brendan Patterman improved to 4-0 on the year, striking out a season-high three over three innings of relief.
- Stony Brook has won four in a row and five of their last seven, sitting in first place of Division B at 15-7 in league play.
QUOTES FROM THE SEAWOLVES
"First, lots of credit to
Ben Fero who bounced back nicely from last week's start and gave us six very solid innings. Offensively, it was great to jump out to the first inning, two-run lead. Unfortunately, we struggled until the eighth when both
Derek Yalon and
Evan Giordano came up big and got us back in the lead with huge back-to-back hits. A clutch double and two-run home run, respectively. Of course, it all led up to
Stanton Leuthner's outstanding last at-bat jumping on the first pitch for the exciting walk off win." - head coach
Matt Senk.
UP NEXT
The Seawolves have two more games slated against UMBC this weekend, with the games originally scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday and Noon on Sunday. Stay tuned to @StonyBrookBASE on social media at
StonyBrookAthletics.com.
For an inside look at the Stony Brook baseball program, be sure to follow it on
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