STONY BROOK, N.Y. — The Stony Brook baseball team (5-9, 0-0 CAA) capped off their 5-0 week this afternoon after finishing off the series sweep against Lafayette College (3-12, 0-0 Patriot League) by defeating the Leopards 9-3 at Joe Nathan Field.
For the third time in the last five games, the Seawolves fell behind early but did not waver. After the team from Pennsylvania scored a run in the top half of the first inning, Stony Brook responded right back with a run of their own. Senior
Shane Paradine tallied the first of his two hits in the afternoon and drove in sophomore
Matt Miceli to tie the game.
Then, following another run by the Leopard offense in the second inning, the Seawolves would go on to score seven unanswered runs to take a 8-2 lead in the fifth and ultimately the 9-3 victory.
The Seawolves sent out graduate
Kyle Johnson to make his second start of the season and sixth start of the year this afternoon. After the right-hander stranded a runner on second base with no outs by retiring the next three batters, freshman
Eddie Smink came in to make his fourth appearance of the year.
Smink, a native of West Chester, Pa., produced his strongest outing of the season after allowing just one run over a career-high 5.0 innings out of the pen. Also, the right-hander allowed one walk and faced two batters over the minimum as he battled only 17 batters over the 5.0 innings.
In the bottom of the fourth, Stony Brook tied the game at 2–2 after junior
Matt Brown-Eiring advanced Paradine to third on a hit-and-run action play, and then scored after Brown-Eiring drew a pick-off.
The Stony Brook offense would finally erupt in the fifth inning by tallying six runs in the frame. Leading the charge was the sophomore class as
Anthony Gentile started the inning by drawing a walk, followed by fellow sophomore
Chris Leone reaching on an error, and second year player
Matt Miceli loading the bases on a bunt base-hit. Freshman
Matthew Wright made his first appearance in the two-spot for the Stony Brook offense this season and drove in Gentile by reaching on a walk.
The Seawolves did not have to wait long on base, as graduate
Evan Giordano cleared the bases by launching a double to right center. After the double, Paradine collected a double for himself down the right field line to drive in Giordano. Junior
Derek Yalon would cap off the inning by bringing home Paradine on a sacrifice-fly and giving Stony Brook the 7-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth.
Freshman
Jerek Hobb made his second appearance of the weekend and struck out two batters in the ninth inning to seal the 9-3 victory for Stony Brook and extend their winning streak to five games.
STATS AND NOTES
● Giordano extended his hit-streak to seven games and has tallied a hit in 10 of his last 11 games after going 2-for-4 for at the plate with 3 RBI and 2 extra base-hits. In the 5-0 week for Stony Brook, Giordano went 14-for-22 at the plate (.636 average), with 14 RBI, 9 runs, a double in every game, a home run, 2 stolen bases, and did not make an error in the field at third base. For the CAA, Giordano leads in batting average (.448), second in hits (26) and RBI (22), third in doubles (6) and OPS (1.198) and is fourth in on-base percentage (.508).
● Paradine collected his fourth multi-hit game of the season after going 2-for-3 at the plate with 2 RBI and 2 runs.
● Brown-Eiring also went 2-for-3 this afternoon at the plate. The Long Island native has recorded multiple hits in his last three games and has reached base safely in 13 of 14 games this season. Also, the junior saved a run in the top of the fifth after throwing out a Leopard at home.
● In his first time in the lead-off spot this season, Miceli went 1-for-4 at the plate and scored twice. He also recorded two stolen bases.
● Smink recorded his first career win by tossing a career-best 5.0 innings out of the pen this afternoon. The right-hander allowed one run, one walk, and struck out four batters.
● The five game winning-streak for Stony Brook is the longest streak since last season's six game winning-streak from April 29 to May 8, 2022.
● The Seawolves are now 13-2 since 2019 in their opening home-weekend series.
● Stony Brook is 10-1 in their last 11 games at Joe Nathan Field dating back to last season.
● The squad moves to 4-3 all-time against Lafayette.
QUOTES FROM THE SEAWOLVES
"I am very proud of our guys, it's a real credit to them. When you have a start like we had, playing some of the best teams in the country, it's easy to get off track. But, we regrouped together and I am very proud of the way that they stepped up to the challenge. They were better because of what we learned about ourselves through the first three weekends and we're looking forward to the battles next week", said head coach
Matt Senk.
UP NEXT
The Seawolves have two more games on their six-game homestand as they will battle Iona on Tuesday at 3 p.m. Then, Stony Brook will return right back to the field on Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m. to take on Central Connecticut State University at Joe Nathan Field.
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