CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — After No. 11 North Carolina (7-3, 0-0 ACC) jumped out to an early lead, the Stony Brook (0-8, 0-0 CAA) baseball team was not able to recover as they fell to the Tar Heels 7-5 on Saturday afternoon.
Eight out of the nine hitters for the Seawolves were able to contribute a base-hit today, including graduate student Evan Giordano pacing the Seawolves with a 2-for-3 day, driving in two runs and scoring twice. The New Jersey native had the biggest swing of the day for the team by blasting his first home run of the season in the seventh inning.
The Seawolves sent out graduate Ben Fero to make his second start of the season. Fero tossed three innings, allowing four earned runs, and recorded a strike out.
Following a home run in the first inning and a two-run single in the third inning, the Seawolves responded right back in the fourth. Leading the rally was junior Matt Brown-Eiring drawing a seven-pitch walk and senior Shane Paradine lasering the baseball up the middle, advancing Brown-Eiring to third. Then, freshman Johnny Pilla, who recorded the first hit for Stony Brook, did his job by launching the ball to right field, allowing Brown-Eiring to score.
The Tar Heels would go on to score two runs in the fourth and fifth inning on home runs to take a 7-1 lead.
Stony Brook would not go away quietly. In the seventh inning, the squad sent seven batters to the plate and scored two runs on the Giordano home run. Brown-Eiring mashed a ball down the right field line and Paulsen reached on an error, but the squad was unable to capitalize as UNC ended the inning by producing a Stony Brook ground out.
Finishing the final two innings for Stony Brook was junior Quinlan Montgomery. The right-hander sat down all six hitters that he faced in his second appearance of the season.
STATS AND NOTES
- Eight Seawolves totaled at least one hit in the game.
- Giordano was the only Seawolf to record a multi-hit game. The home run in the seventh inning by Giordano was the first of the season and 23rd of his career, which is tied for ninth place in the Stony Brook record book with C.J. Lutz (1997-00). The third baseman leads the team in hits (11), RBI (8), and batting average (.333). Giordano also has multiple hits in five games this season.
- Paradine was 1-for-5 at the plate, knocking in his fourth run of the year and 66th of his career.
- Brown-Eiring now has a three game hit-streak after going 1-for-4 at the plate with a walk.
- Fox now has a hit in the last five games and seven of the eight games this season by going 1-for-4 at the plate.
- Senior Brandon Lashley made his third appearance out of the pen this afternoon and allowed two runs, two hits, and struck out one batter over his three innings on the bump.
UP NEXT
Game three of this set will be tomorrow afternoon with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.
