BATON ROUGE, La. -- Freshman Nicholas Rizzo tossed eight innings and allowed just one run to lead the Seawolves to a 5-1 victory over Northwestern State at Alex Box Stadium this evening.
The Stony Brook Seawolves took a 2-0 lead in the third inning and never trailed from there on the way to victory over the Demons. Rizzo took care of the Demon batters by striking out four, allowing one walk, and eight hits over his eight innings of work. This was the first career victory for the left-hander in his second start.
Junior Robert Taylor led the way offensively for the Seawolves, going 2-for-4 in the ballgame with a double and two RBI. Senior Evan Fox put together a noteworthy performance at the plate as well, going 1-for-2 with three walks, three stolen bags and an RBI. Senior Matt Brown-Eiring also contributed, going 2-for-3 for Stony Brook with a walk and an RBI. After earning his first career hit yesterday against LSU, freshman Erik Paulsen tallied three hits in the victory.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Seawolves put runs on the scoreboard first, starting the scoring in the third inning after Rizzo sat down six of his first seven batters. Stony Brook would score twice, with one run coming across on Brown-Eiring's single and Fox scoring on an error after he stole a base.
The Seawolves then lost some of their lead, expanding on their advantage in the fourth inning after the Demons cut it to 2-1 from a homerun. Stony Brook scored once on an RBI single off the bat of Fox in the fourth, which brought the Seawolves lead to 3-1.
Stony Brook held Northwestern State without a run as Rizzo retired six of his seven batter in the fifth and sixth before building their lead to 5-1 in their half of the sixth inning. The Seawolves pushed two runs across on a two-run double from Taylor that brought home E. Paulsen and junior Matt Miceli. The score remained 5-1 for the rest of the game, as Rizzo stranded a runner on third base to end the eighth inning and graduate student Ty Stout closed the door in the ninth to seal the victory.
STATS AND NOTES
- Stony Brook's highest scoring inning was the sixth, when it pushed two runs across.
- Stony Brook grabbed the lead at 2-0 in the bottom half of the third and never lost that advantage.
- Stony Brook went 3-for-9 (.333) with runners in scoring position.
- Stony Brook pitchers limited Northwestern State to just 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
- Stony Brook pitchers faced 33 Northwestern State hitters in the game, allowing nine ground balls and nine fly balls while striking out four.
- The Seawolves drew seven walks from Northwestern State pitching.
- After recording his first career hit in the victory over LSU yesterday, E. Paulsen had a team-high three hits tonight and also scored a run in the victory.
- Taylor led the way with two hits and two RBI. In his last two games, the junior is 4-for-8 with five RBI and three doubles
- Fox was on base all evening after he went 1-for-2 at the plate with two walks. The program's all-time stolen-base leader tallied two tonight, and also had an RBI and scored a run.
- Brown-Eiring extends his hit-streak to seven games to begin this season after his 2-for-3 outing with a walk and RBI. He is now leading the team with his .429 average and 11 RBI.
- Paulsen and Miceli each tallied a hit in the victory.
- In his second start for the Seawolves, Rizzo tossed eight innings with four strikeouts, one walks, and only allowed one run.
- Stony Brook is now 1-1 all-time against Northwestern State.
QUOTES FROM THE SEAWOLVES
"Tonight was very much about freshman lefty Nicholas Rizzo's eight inning performance," said head coach Matt Senk. "What a way to earn your first collegiate win. Nick was just outstanding! Nick's performance was complimented by some excellent, errorless defense, timely hitting, which included multiple hit games from Matt Brown-Eiring, Erik Paulsen and Robert Taylor as well as an overall ten-hit attack. Tonight's win sets up what promises to be an electric atmosphere at Alex Box Stadium tomorrow with both LSU and us entering the weekend finale with 2 and 1 records."
UP NEXT
The Seawolves will return to the field tomorrow afternoon for their final game of the weekend at Alex Box as they will battle the LSU Tigers at 2:00 p.m.
