STONY BROOK, N.Y. – The Stony Brook baseball team boosted its winning streak to four games with a doubleheader sweep of Lafayette College at Joe Nathan Field on Friday afternoon. The Seawolves were victorious in game one, 11-6, and then picked up a 9-7 win in game two.
In game one, graduate Jared Bellissimo made his fourth start of the season. Coming off a start against UNC where he held the Tar Heels to just two hits over 5.0 innings, the least amount of hits the Tar Heels have had against a starter this season, the left-hander went a career-best 6.1 innings, allowing two earned runs, with five strikeouts.
Stony Brook trailed 4-3 entering the bottom of the seventh in the first matchup of the afternoon. The Seawolves rallied for six runs in the bottom half of the inning, taking the lead and never looking back.
Sophomore Matt Miceli led the inning off with a walk, and graduate Evan Giordano hit a ringing double in the right center gap to score Miceli and tie the game at 4-4. The next four Seawolves would reach safely, including junior Matt Brown-Eiring who drove in senior Shane Paradine for the go ahead run. Brown-Eiring paced the Seawolves offense with a 3-for-5 day that included a solo home run in the third inning and four RBI.
In game two, graduate Ben Fero captured his first victory of the season after allowing three earned runs over six innings. The right hander retired the first eight batters he faced and registered a season best six strikeouts.
After senior Brett Paulsen broke a 1-1 tie in the fourth inning by lasering a single to right center, Giordano and Brown-Eiring delivered hits that drove in three runs in the fifth.
Sophomore JT Raab entered the game in the seventh and closed the door for Stony Brook by finishing the final 3.0 innings. He struck out the side in the seventh and the eighth before weathering a late rally by Lafayette in the ninth en route to Stony Brook's 9-7 win.
DOUBLEHEADER STATS AND NOTES
- Raab earned his first career save out of the pen in just his fourth career appearance. He has thrown 8.0 innings and struck out 13 batters over his last two outings (7 vs Fordham on March 7th and 6 today vs. Lafayette).
- Giordano has an RBI in the last four games. The graduate masher is hitting .667 (12-for-18) with a home run and 11 RBI in four games of action this week.
- Junior Evan Fox tallied four stolen bases across the doubleheader. The junior has now stolen 63 bases in his career which is second in program history behind Stony Brook legend Travis Jankowski who is the all-time leader with 79 career steals.
- Senior Josh O'Neill earned his first win of the season after tossing 2.2 innings of relief in game one. Last season, he led the squad with seven victories.
- Brown-Eiring drove in a season-best four runs in the first victory of the afternoon. It was the most RBI for him in a game since his two home run, six-RBI performance against Hofstra on May 4th, 2022.
QUOTES FROM THE SEAWOLVES
"The effort, mindset, and energy has been great this week. We need to do the things that we do. We try to play Stony Brook baseball and if we execute the things we practice and preach, you are going to get a good result. It was good to see our pitchers take care of business today and our identity as a staff is coming together", said head coach Matt Senk.
UP NEXT
Game three of the series will be Sunday afternoon with first pitch scheduled for 12 p.m.
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