#13 Mia Haynes at last Sunday's game Photo from Stony Brook Athletics
In a game that lasted five hours and 44 minutes, saw two rain delays and 11 innings, it would be the Stony Brook softball team that would come out on top. The Seawolves defeated Towson, 7-6, at Tiger Softball Field on April 30 to take the series.
Senior catcher Corinne Badger got the squad off to a hot start with a solo home run to left field in the second inning. Senior infielder Brooke Dye added another run in the second with a single to left field which plated junior outfielder Julianna Sanzone.
After the two-hour rain delay which paused the game in the middle of the fourth, junior utility Catherine Anne Kupinski stepped up to the plate in the fifth and smoked a three-run bomb to left center which brought home Alyssa Costello and Alicia Orosco which increased the Seawolves’ lead to 5-0.
The Tigers answered back with six runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth. Towson’s Cori Jones got the momentum started with a two-RBI double to left field. From there, the Tigers added a two RBI single, a RBI triple, and a RBI single to grab hold of a 6-5 lead.
With the game on the line in the top of the seventh, Kupinski stepped up to the dish and, once again, delivered for the squad. Kupinski singled to center to bring home Shauna Nuss to tie the contest 6-6 and head into extra innings.
In the top of the 11th inning, freshman infielder Naiah Ackerman singled up the middle which brought Emily Reinstein home and gave the Seawolves a 7-6 lead. The Stony Brook defense took care of business in the bottom of the 11th to secure the 7-6 victory and the series.
#16 Noah Armitage celebrates the team's victory last Saturday night.
Photo from Stony Brook Athletics
The Stony Brook men’s lacrosse team defeated Hofstra, 11-10, on April 29 at James M. Shuart Stadium in Hempstead to secure the programs first-ever berth into the CAA Tournament.
Graduate midfielder Matt Anderson led the offensive effort for the Seawolves, tallying a career-high tying four goals. Graduate attacker Jonathan Huber and senior attacker Dylan Pallonetti each recorded a pair of goals while Will Button, Noah Armitage, and Robbie Smith all added a goal.
Stony Brook struck first within the first three minutes of the contest courtesy of Anderson who found the back of the cage off an assist from Button. However, the Pride did not stay silent for long as they responded with a goal of their own with 9:32 remaining in the first quarter. Pallonetti answered back for the squad, recording his 46th goal of the season with 5:33 left to play in the first quarter. Less than 10 seconds later, Hofstra’s Chase Patterson slid a shot past sophomore goalie Jamison MacLachlan to tie the contest at 2-2 before heading into the quarter break.
The Pride came out of the break hot, taking a 3-2 lead within the first minute of the second quarter. This time it was Huber who tied the game at 3-3 for the Seawolves off an assist from senior attacker Blake Behlen. Stony Brook and Hofstra would continue to exchange blows for the remainder of the quarter to, once again, enter the break tied, this time at 4-4.
Coming out of halftime, it was the Seawolves on top, 5-4, as Anderson converted an assist from Behlen within the first 20 seconds of the third quarter. The squad added five more goals to take control of a 10-5 lead, their largest margin of the contest.
The Pride fought back, adding six goals of their own. However, it would not be enough as Anderson sealed the victory for Stony Brook, registering the squad’s 11th goal of the night with 12:50 remaining in the contest to secure the 11-10 win and the program’s first-ever berth into the CAA Tournament.
Up next, the team head to Newark, Del. to compete in the CAA Tournament. The squad enters as the No. 3 seed and will play No. 2 seeded Drexel in the semifinals on May 4 at 8:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on LacrosseTV.
An international scientific project that compares the genomes of 240 living species of mammals has identified transposable elements (TEs) – genes that can change their position within a genome, creating or reversing mutations and thus altering a cell’s genetic identity – as a crucial area of study to help uncover the evolutionary process of mammals and to better understand biodiversity. Stony Brook University’s Liliana M. Dávalos is a collaborator in the analyses of TEs for the project. Two new papers, one published in the current issue of Science, and the other in Molecular Biology and Evolution, highlight the findings.
This graphic depicts the range of recently accumulated transposable elements (TEs) among sample mammals by proportion of their genome. Image credit: Osmanski et al. 2023 Science
The past 100 million years has caused mammals to adapt to virtually every environment on the planet. The Zoonomia Project, of which Dávalos is a scientific contributor, has cataloged the diversity in mammalian genomes by completing comparative genomic DNA sequences from the 240 species. The team, which consists of more than 150 scientists worldwide, published their multi-year comparative genome analysis in the Science paper.
Dávalos studies how biodiversity changes through time and what biological processes fuel biodiversity. She teamed up with David Ray and his lab at Texas Tech University to qualitatively analyze the dynamics of TEs.
The paper describes the TE repertoires of 248 placental mammals. TEs make up a sizeable proportion of all mammalian genomes, yet there is much variation from one species to the next. The scientific team points out that that relating TEs to biodiversity is far from simple. Additionally, with the ability to move throughout the genome, TEs can contribute to biodiversity or also stymie it.
“Determining how many transposable elements of each kind are in each species is key to figuring out how transposons contribute to biodiversity. It seems simple to relate these counts to the number of species or their ecology, however that is misleading,” explains Dávalos, Professor of Conservation Biology in the Department of Ecology and Evolution, and a co-author of the paper. “Some species , like bats and whales, believe it or not are more closely related to each other than to others, such as bats and primates, so we must factor this related into our statistics within the comparative genomic mammalian analyses.”
The researchers identified more than 25,000 TE sequences in the mammalian set, with some mammals having large portions of TEs in their genome, calculated over time for each species. The average was approximately 45 percent
Overall, they concluded that “considering the wide-ranging effects that TEs impose on genomic architecture, these data are an important resource for future inquiries into mammalian genomics and evolution and suggest avenues for continued study of these important yet understudied genomic denizens.”
In the Molecular Biology and Evolution paper, novel statistical approaches to determining genome sequences in bats developed by Dávalos were used by the authors to describe the place bats hold with regard to TEs in mammals.
According to the lead author, Nicole Paulat, a graduate student in the Ray Lab, the research team found bats uniquely have more events involving TE transfers from one species to another. One mechanism that may explain such excess transfers is through viruses, an important finding on how several bat species have been found to host diverse and sometimes dangerous viruses.
Both papers based on the work from the Zoonomia Project illustrate that TEs are highly active across the genome of most mammal species, and because of this, future studies centering on TEs may help provide answers to mammalian biodiversity worldwide. Such research may also provide further hints as to how and why TEs disrupt mammalian genomes, therefore changing DNA and contributing to evolutionary processes and/or the development of disease.
Left to right: Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Simons Foundation president David Spergel, SBU President Maurie McInnis, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Harbor School student Leanna Martin Peterson and Trust for Governors Island President Clare Newman. Photo by John Griffin/Stony Brook University
Climate change often conjures images of violent storms, rising sea levels and endangered animals.
Scientists around the world warn so often about the dangers to our one and only planet that some couples have decided to hold off — or even not — have children among all the future anxiety.
Amid all that worry, however, New York City, the Trust for Governors Island, Stony Brook University and a team of other universities, nonprofits and businesses are working on the kind of solutions that could lead to a better future.
On a sun-splashed Monday morning at Governors Island just off the southern tip of Manhattan, Mayor Eric Adams (D), SBU President Maurie McInnis, Simons Foundation President David Spergel and a host of other luminaries discussed a new $710 million center for climate solutions, which Stony Brook as the anchor institution has called the New York Climate Exchange.
With $100 million in backing from the Simons Foundation, $50 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies and $150 million from New York City, the center will serve a host of important functions, including retraining 6,000 workers a year for jobs in the green energy sector, providing incubator space for businesses that are working on climate solutions and educating children from kindergarten through 12th grade.
In addition to the huge win for Stony Brook, which competed against other high-powered public and private universities for this coveted lead role, the effort could be a victory for New York, the surrounding mid-Atlantic states, the country and the planet.
Near the Statue of Liberty, which is a beacon of hope for democracy and an iconic symbol of the country, the Governors Island effort can come up with solutions and alternatives to a doom-and-gloom scenario while also sparking a commitment from students eager to find an outlet for their energy and creativity.
Will the center on its own help the world avoid the 1.5 degrees Celsius increase in temperature from the pre-Industrial Revolution days that scientists often point to as a tipping point for the planet?
Absolutely not. That’s up to everyone from government and state leaders to huge companies and even individuals in the U.S. and throughout the world.
What the climate center, which will be completed in 2028 and will generate its own electric power without adding greenhouse gasses, will do is encourage dialogue with everyone, offer hope and provide a place for the best and brightest minds to develop answers to some of the world’s most troubling questions.
Coming just a few days after Earth Day, that is worth celebrating.
Michael French in front of a mobile radar antenna.
By Daniel Dunaief
Michael French
When he was in elementary school in Hamden, Connecticut, Michael French was several miles away from an event that would shape his life. A tornado touched down, causing extensive damage, knocking out power lines and injuring 40 people. The violent storm was traumatizing, causing him to hide in the closet during routine summer storms.
By the time French attended college at Cornell University, these powerful and potentially devastating storms had become an “interest and fascination,” he said, leading him to major in atmospheric sciences.
After graduating from college, he received an offer from Professor Howard Bluestein at the University of Oklahoma (OU) for a master’s program. A consultant for the movie Twister starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, Bluestein was one of the first to put a weather radar on the back of a truck to collect data in severe storms and tornadoes. French also earned his PhD at OU.
These days, French, who is an Associate Professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, spends parts of his time traveling to places in the southeast in trucks with unique and emerging instrumentation, typically Doppler weather radar, gathering data about severe thunderstorms and tornadoes.
French has seen about 25 tornadoes. The closest he’s come to these violent storms is about a kilometer away, which occurred in 2004. When he’s conducting research, he is more concerned about lightning, which frequently occurs around thunderstorms that produce tornadoes.
When he’s collecting data, French has to get out of the truck to stow the antenna among other tasks. “Automatically, that means you’re in danger,” French said. “There’s nothing you can do about it, except try to minimize your time” outside. Two or three times when he was earning his PhD, lightning struck within a quarter of a mile of his location.
Better sampling
In his research, French described himself as a “pure observationalist.”
A main theme of his research is whether the nationwide network of fixed-site radar can be used by forecasters to predict whether a thunderstorm will produce a tornado and, if it does, how likely it is to be a significant or violent storm.
French is also interested in exploring what leads to tornado dissipation and whether forecasters can use radar analysis to make dissipation predictions.
Looking at time scales of 30 seconds or fewer, he studies how tornadoes evolve, including how they tilt, how their intensity changes with height, and their motion. He can estimate these characteristics with phased-array radar technology, in which the beam of the radar is steered electronically.
Scientists like French can tap into archived data from a network of 160 radars stationed throughout the country. He would like to use information from the past 10 to 15 years to analyze hundreds of supercell thunderstorms to find commonalities among those that produce tornadoes and those that don’t.
“Ideally, in the future, such information, to the extent it exists, can be leveraged by forecasters to better assess the likelihood of a storm producing a tornado,” French explained.
Many of his ideas for research projects come from reading the results of papers from colleagues who use computer models to simulate storms and tornadoes. In a model, the scientists can control conditions like temperature and humidity. French thinks about ways to verify the findings using observational data.
Funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, French participates in the Propagation, Evolution and Rotation in Linear Storms field experiment (called PERiLS).
Running from February through May in the southeast, the experiment studies tornadoes within a different type of storm, referred to as squall lines. The tornadoes that form in these storms persist or form overnight, often hitting while people are sleeping and are unprepared to protect themselves.
He is working with Stony Brook Professor Pavlos Kollias in using mobile phased array radar to collect data over short time scales of these squall lines when they’re producing tornadoes.
In areas where people live in mobile homes, these squall line tornadoes can lift the home, damaging homes and threatening the lives of people as they sleep.
Exciting findings
French uses a radar called dual polarization, which provides information about the size, shape, orientation and type of precipitation. He is interested in whether this technology can identify differences in storms to predict the formation of tornadoes.
In dual polarization, there are a few signatures of storms that hold some promise of differentiating between those that produce tornadoes and those that don’t.
Working with an algorithm to identify the ZDR column, which is a proxy for the size of the updraft, developed by Darrel Kingfield at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, French analyzed 200 supercell storms and found that the ZDR column was larger in storms that produce stronger tornadoes and was smaller or nonexistent in storms that did not.
Forecasters don’t have a way yet to automate the size of the ZDR column in real time.
In an email, Bluestein suggested that French’s studies, including on how tornadoes dissipate, can “contribute to improved short term forecasting.”
Bluestein, who has seen over 100 tornadoes, also suggested that two papers from French that related drop size distributions estimated from polarimetric radar data in supercells were “original and rather novel. This work has implications for estimating the intensity of pools of cool air in storms, which can be related to tornado formation.”
Dinner table conversations
A resident of Stony Brook, French lives with his wife Jennifer, who is a hydrometeorologist at Vieux & Co. The couple met when they were at the University of Oklahoma.
French said his wife, who storm chased when she was in Oklahoma, knows the safety measures he uses to mitigate the risks.
While French studies these storms because of their destructive power and the need to understand more about how and where they will form, he also has an appreciation for them.
At a distance, when these storms aren’t impacting people and when he can’t hear the roar of the wind, French describes tornadoes as a “wonder of nature” that have an “aesthetic element to them that is really astounding.”
As for his childhood concern about these storms, French feels that he “ultimately channeled [his fear] in a positive way.”
When the City of New York and the Trust for Governors Island chose Stony Brook University to lead a collection of institutions to build a new climate solutions center on Governors Island, the moment marked both an ending and a beginning.
For Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which provided a concept-level design for the institution, the announcement brings SOM and the work it will do with the Manhattan-based landscape architecture firm MNLA to a new stage.
“The work we have done is essentially through a concept level of design,” said Keith O’Connor, principal at SOM. “Now that Stony Brook has been selected, we’ll be doing much more detailed work in schematic design and design development.”
While the plans call for the biggest mass timber building in New York City, the developers of the project, which will start in 2025 and is expected to open in 2028, have not gotten into the details about all the materials they will use and where they will purchase them.
As with so many other decisions related to a center dedicated to understanding and combating the effects of climate change, the choices for the materials will reflect the center’s goals.
“It’s not only about how we come up with the best system and most appropriate design,” O’Connor said. “It has to be a holistic picture. It’s all about the full life of the materials — everything from where they originate, how they are processed and how they are transported and shipped.”
The decisions will consider the future and the way the center, which Stony Brook has named the New York Climate Exchange, might reuse or adapt the materials.
In addition, SOM and Stony Brook are committed to executing changes in the construction of the 400,000-square-foot facility, which will include 230,000 square feet of new buildings and 170,000 square feet of refurbished space.
SOM will share information related to the process.
“We need to help other people understand how they, too, can make intelligent choices,” O’Connor said.
SOM plans to implement tried and true technologies and push the envelope in doing things that haven’t been done.
“What we do with the Exchange can help move the market,” said O’Connor.
SOM has been working with mass timber in several projects, including for the Billie Jean King Library in Long Beach, California. SOM will also use mass timber as a part of the High Line-Moynihan Train Hall Connector, a pedestrian path between Moynihan Train Hall, Manhattan West and the High Line.
O’Connor explained that mass timber doesn’t need an additional finish on top of it, which allows builders and designers to use less material.
The design of the buildings will be 18 feet in elevation, which is 10 feet higher than the existing structures. Stony Brook and SOM wanted the buildings to have resilience amid future storm surges.
The goal of the Exchange is to use effective design techniques to enhance resilience.
Part of the proposal involves altering the stone sea wall, a hard-engineered armored edge of the island, and replacing it with a living shoreline that is ecologically and landscape based.
The island will have a variety of plantings to create a terrestrial and diverse habitat, O’Connor added.
Working with MNLA, SOM is coming up with plantings that are appropriate for conditions ranging from elevations of five and eight feet with exposure to salt spray up to 18 feet.
O’Connor explained that the teams involved in the project are eager to start working. The next steps will include design engineering, procurement and construction, which will “take some time.”
O’Connor was pleased to be involved in a project that is “profoundly meaningful to our city and society.” He suggested such work might occur once or twice in a generation or a career.
Stony Brook University President Maurie McInnis, center, was among the panelists at the Charles B. Wang Center discussing the creation of the New York Climate Exchange. Photo by Daniel Febrizio
Stony Brook University students and faculty gathered Tuesday, April 25, at the Charles B. Wang Center for a special town hall meeting that marked the creation of the New York Climate Exchange on Governors Island in New York City. The event was free and open to the public.
The panelists included Maurie McInnis, SBU president; Jed Shivers, senior vice president for finance and administration; Kevin Reed, associate dean for Research in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences; and Keith O’Connor, principal at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which has been developing this project.
The event was moderated by Craig Allen, chief meteorologist for WCBS-880 and a former Stony Brook University graduate.
McInnis spoke on her excitement regarding this opportunity for Stony Brook to be the anchor institution for the climate exchange.
“Setting ambitious goals, responding to society’s greatest needs and propelling our university to even higher levels of excellence … this is the Stony Brook way, and it’s why we’re here today,” McInnis said. She added that SBU is going to “bring together the world’s most innovative organizations across sectors to problem solve and turn solutions into action.”
Shivers explained that “the climate exchange is a separate and distinct charitable organization” from the university and that “no Stony Brook University funds shall be utilized as part of the capital that needs to be raised to do the design or the construction work or support the initial operating expenses.”
Reed followed by noting that while SBU will not be making financial investments, “what Stony Brook is going to get to invest is our ideas and, as the president already mentioned, our problem-solving skills.”
O’Connor spoke on how “all of the energy will be generated on-site” because it is going to be a “100% electric campus.” He added that “one of the objectives is the buildings, the landscape and the systems all coming together to demonstrate how you build a sustainable long-term campus.”
After the conclusion of the town hall, which included a brief Q&A that allowed some members of the audience to speak, TBR spoke to some attendees to get their reactions to this announcement.
Sergio Perez, a professor from the Marine Engineering Department of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, expressed excitement at the promise and potential of this project since hundreds of millions of dollars will go into it. “We can do a vast improvement to Governors Island,” Perez said. “At the very worst it’s going to create lots of jobs. But at the very best it will have an effect on climate change.”
Sky Freeman, a student studying journalism and political science, said he believes “it’s going to be a fantastic opportunity for Stony Brook to combat climate change.”
“I think if I had the opportunity to get involved, it would definitely be something I would seriously consider,” Freeman said. “I think the design of the building is very unique, very cool — it’ll create a great atmosphere on the island.”
He added that he does not think that most students are aware of the plans for the climate exchange, but that he knows there is a lot of excitement from the administration and from faculty.
Paul Shepson, dean of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at SBU, said that he anticipates his school being a “contributor to the success of the exchange.”
“Our faculty will be involved in many ways in developing programs and engaging in some of the research that goes on there,” Shepson said. “I love that Stony Brook is leading in the creation of this exchange where we’re going to be a convener of the best minds in the world in identifying and implementing solutions to the climate crisis.”
While there is still more planning and development to be done, McInnis said it is anticipated that ground will be broken on the project in 2025 for completion by 2028.
Stony Brook University President Maurie McInnis, left, shakes hands with New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Photo by John Griffin/Stony Brook University
With a vision to turn parts of Governors Island into a world-class center that blends into the surrounding greenery, Stony Brook University won the highly competitive process to create a climate solutions center.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) and the Trust for Governors Island earlier this week named Stony Brook the lead in teaming up with other universities, nonprofits and businesses to create a $700 million facility that will start construction in 2025 and open in 2028.
Backed by a $100 million donation from the Simons Foundation, a $50 million gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies and $150 million from the City of New York, Stony Brook will create a unique 400,000 square-foot facility.
The center will house research laboratories and host community discussions, train 6,000 people to work in green energy jobs per year, provide educational opportunities and search for climate solutions, including those that affect low-income communities of color.
“Climate change is here and the danger is real,” Adams said at a press conference on Governors Island unveiling the winner of the competition. “I am proud to announce that we have selected a team led by Stony Brook University to deliver the New York Climate Exchange.”
Adams suggested the Stony Brook team, which includes local partners like Pace University, New York University and the City University of New York, will protect the city’s air and water.
The Trust for Governors Island also anticipates the site, which will include a “semester abroad” on-site, fellowships and internship programs, will host scientific symposiums that can bring together leaders in a range of fields.
In an email, Simons Foundation President David Spergel hopes the center will “nucleate new business that generates jobs in the region, invest in new technologies and advance solutions.”
The foundation is helping to recruit other benefactors to meet the financial needs for the site both by the example of its commitment and through personal interactions, Spergel said.
Stony Brook, meanwhile, which has a deep pool of researchers at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences investigating climate-related issues, doesn’t plan to wait until the buildings are refurbished and constructed to start the conceptual and educational work.
During phase zero, the university will “work with our partners immediately” on developing programs for kindergarten through grade 12 outreach, on scaling up green workforce development and on developing collaborative research projects across institutions, SBU President Maurie McInnis said in a town hall discussion with the campus community.
Left to right: Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Simons Foundation president David Spergel, SBU President Maurie McInnis, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Harbor School student Leanna Martin Peterson and Trust for Governors Island President Clare Newman. Photo by John Griffin/Stony Brook University
Practice what it preaches
In addition to providing space that will generate and test out ideas for solutions to climate change, the New York Climate Exchange buildings will minimize the carbon footprint.
There will be 230,000 square feet of new space and 170,000 square feet of refurbished existing structures. The plans, which were created by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, involve creating the biggest mass-timber building in New York City. As an alternative to concrete and steel, mass timber has a lower carbon footprint and is lighter.
Mass timber uses “less material and in a more efficient way,” said Keith O’Connor, principal at SOM, who runs the city design practice in New York and Washington, D.C., in an interview.
SOM designed the tops of the buildings with 142,000 square feet of solar cells, which will generate more than enough power for the site, enabling the center to provide all of its electricity needs and to send some energy to the city.
“We wanted to work really hard to avoid having a field of solar panels sitting off to the side” or sticking solar panels on each roof, O’Connor said. Instead, the solar panels, which will be at slightly different angles from each other, track the topography of the structures without creating a glaring field of reflected light.
Guests who arrive at Governors Island will notice a solar canopy that is “front and center,” O’Connor said. “It’s about a message for everyone who is visiting — it says that energy generation is critical.”
SOM wanted to find a way to create a warm and welcoming aesthetic that provides energy, O’Connor added.
All of the nondrinking water will come from rainwater and treated wastewater.
The site anticipates diverting 95% of waste from landfills, making it one of the first in the country to achieve true zero-waste certification.
“The concept of the physical structure is astonishing,” David Manning, director of Stakeholder Relations at Brookhaven National Laboratory, which will serve as an adviser on the center, said in an interview. “You want to attract the best and the brightest. You do that with programming. It doesn’t hurt that [the design and the facilities] are also cool.”
An aerial rendering of the island after construction, which will also include 4.5 acres of new open space, looks more like a park than a typical research station.
Governors Island, which hosts about a million visitors each year who arrive on ferries that run every half hour, plans to double the ferry service, with trips traveling every 15 minutes during the day starting next year. Also in 2024, the city will start using a hybrid electric ferry to reduce emissions.
Considerable collaborative support
McInnis expressed her gratitude to the team at Stony Brook and to her partners for putting together the winning proposal.
McInnis suggested that the university’s commitment to studying, understanding and mitigating climate change, coupled with national and international collaborations, would unite numerous strengths in one place.
“We knew we had the right team to lead this effort,” said McInnis at the announcement on Governors Island. “We also knew we needed a diverse set of partners” in areas including environmental justice, in the business sector and in philanthropic communities.
Other partners include Georgia Tech, University of Washington, Duke University, Rochester Institute of Technology and University of Oxford, England.
BNL’s Manning appreciated the opportunity to attend the kickoff of the project on Governors Island.
Near the tip of Manhattan amid a “stunning blue sky,” the gathering was the “perfect setting” to announce and create solutions that were “this future focused,” Manning said.
The Stony Brook softball team run-ruled Hampton, 9-0, in five innings to win game three and ultimately take the series on April 23 at University Field.
It was all Seawolves in the series finale as the squad got off to a hot start with a solo home run in the first inning by sophomore outfielder Alyssa Costello. Junior infielder Sofia Chambers fed off of Costello’s momentum, plating senior infielder Brooke Dye in the second inning after she singled up the middle.
Costello added to her standout day with a two RBI double up the middle in the second to bring home junior outfielder Alicia Orosco and Chambers which increased Stony Brook’s lead to 4-0. Junior infielder Ashley Jacobson added a solo home run of her own in the third and sophomore catcher Emily Reinstein was able to score off a wild throw by Hampton’s catcher.
Senior catcher Corinne Badger sealed the victory for the Seawolves with a three-run home run in the bottom of the fourth to secure the 9-0 win.
“Just going up there and thinking about getting my barrel to the ball and just trying to hit it hard to help out my teammates anyway that I can,” said junior infielder Ashley Jacobson on her successful hitting.
“Throughout the season my confidence has definitely gone up since the beginning of the season. I felt like I wasn’t really stringing good at bats together, but now that confidence is there and it fuels off of my teammates 100 percent,” said sophomore outfielder Alyssa Costello.
“We just need to keep playing good softball. We have put all three parts together in the last two games of the series, pitching, offense and defense. We are swinging at better pitches and we really want to be able to be productive through the lineup and not just rely on one person and I think it is tough when a team has to come out and really work on batters one through nine,” said head coach Megan T. Bryant.
The Stony Brook men’s lacrosse team sent its 10 seniors off with a thrilling 17-14 win over Fairfield on April 22. Senior attackman Dylan Pallonetti led the charge for the Seawolves as he tallied six points and scored a game-high five goals en route to the crucial CAA victory.
The Seawolves used a big first quarter to take an early 8-4 lead. Stony Brook had six different goal scorers in the opening frame, which included Pallonetti who recorded a hat trick over the first 10 minutes of play. The Seawolves scored six of the first seven goals in the game and at one point scored four consecutive goals in the first and took a 6-1 lead.
Stony Brook carried over its momentum into the second quarter as it outscored Fairfield, 3-2, in the frame and took an 11-6 advantage into the halftime break. Graduate midfielder Matt Anderson, graduate attackman Jonathan Huber, and senior attackman Will Button all rattled the cage in the second quarter as the trio helped cushion the Seawolves’ first half lead. The teams played an even third quarter as Stony Brook took a 15-10 lead into the final frame. Senior defenseman Michael Sabella made a highlight reel play with 3:04 to play in the third quarter. Sabella knocked the stick out of Fairfield midfielder Rob Moore’s hands to force a turnover, he then scooped up the ground ball, took it down to the offensive end of the field and ripped a shot into the back of the net. For Sabella, it was his first career goal, and it gave the Seawolves a 14-8 lead.
Fairfield started the fourth quarter hot by scoring three goals over the first four minutes of play to cut Stony Brook’s lead to 15-13. Following a Seawolves’ timeout and on the ensuing face-off, graduate defensive midfielder David Miele-Estrella picked up the loose ball at the X, charged down field, and found Pallonetti who ripped his fifth goal of the game and upped the Seawolves lead to 16-13.
Stony Brook added an insurance goal with 2:04 to play in the contest when senior attackman Blake Behlen found the back of the net to give the Seawolves a 17-14 advantage, a score they would hold on to win by.
Sophomore goalie Jamison MacLachlan came up huge for the Seawolves in the fourth quarter as he made six of his 15 saves in the final frame. Five of those six saves in the fourth quarter kept Stony Brook up 16-14 from the 10:01 mark until there was 2:04 to play.
Pallonetti finished the game with six points, which included five goals and one assist. He extended his goal scoring streak to 41 games, which continues to be the longest such streak in the nation. He now has 45 goals on the season, the eighth-most in a single-season in program history. For his career, he now has 115 goals, which ties him with Bo Tripodi and Tom Haun for the sixth-most in program history.
Huber and Anderson both finished the game with hat tricks. For Huber, it was his fifth hat trick of the season and the 21st of his career. For Anderson, it was also his fifth hat trick of 2023 and the 12th of his career.
Junior Noah Armitage registered four points (one goal, three assists). The three assists tied a career-high (also dished out three assists in a game at Monmouth on Mar. 25).
Behlen totaled three points (one goal, two assists). It was the 11th time this season that he recorded a multi-point game and fifth time he finished a game with multiple assists.
Sabella scored his first career goal, picked up a career-high tying five ground balls, and caused two turnovers. He held Fairfield’s Bryce Ford to just one goal on 1-of-5 shooting.
Miele-Estrella scored his first goal of the season and dished out his first assist of the season. The goal was the fifth of his career.
MacLachlan made 15 saves and picked up a pair of ground balls. It marked the seventh time this season that he made 10 or more saves in a game and the fourth time that he has made 15 or more stops in a contest.
“There is so much emotion on senior day and I am so happy for that group and so proud to get them a win in their last game at LaValle Stadium. The guys worked hard all week – I thought we had a really good week of practice and we saw the results in today’s win over Fairfield,” said head coach Anthony Gilardi. NEXT UP The team concludes the 2023 regular season next Saturday, April 29, when it makes the short trip over to Hempstead to take on Long Island rival Hofstra at 7 p.m. It marks the first time that the teams will meet since February 27, 2021, when the Pride earned a 20-17 win at Shuart Stadium. The Seawolves last defeated the Pride on February 25, 2020, when they picked up a 14-11 win at LaValle Stadium.
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