SBU Sports: Baseball cruises to victory over Manhattan
The Stony Brook Seawolves erupted for five runs in the fourth inning and held Manhattan to just three hits en route to a commanding 10-4 victory on April 1 at Joe Nathan Field.
Right-hander Ty Panariello started strong, walking the first batter but quickly recovering with a foul out, a caught stealing by Scott Gell, and a pop-up to end the inning. The Seawolves went down in order in the bottom of the first, keeping the game scoreless through one.Panariello returned in the second, delivering a clean 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout. However, Stony Brook’s offense remained quiet, going down in order again as the teams remained tied. The right-hander continued his dominance in the third, retiring all three batters and capping the frame with a strikeout. The Seawolves were held hitless again, leaving both teams off the scoreboard.
Reliever Matt Sgambati entered in the fourth and fired a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts. Stony Brook’s offense then came alive in the bottom half. Nick Zampieron led off with a walk, becoming the Seawolves’ first baserunner of the game. Erik Paulsen advanced him with a groundout, and after Zampieron stole third, Nico Azpilcueta broke the deadlock with an infield single. Chanz Doughty and Evan Goforth were hit by back-to-back pitches, setting the stage for Brett Davino’s sacrifice fly, which made it 2-0. An error on a ground ball from Gell allowed another run to score, and Chris Carsoncapped the explosive inning with a two-run single, giving Stony Brook a 5-0 advantage.
Manhattan responded with three runs in the fifth, cutting the deficit to 5-3, but Azpilcueta quickly answered in the bottom half with a towering solo home run—his sixth in the last seven games—pushing the lead to 6-3.
In the sixth, after the Seawolves held the Jaspers scoreless, Carson blasted a solo homer over the right-field fence to extend the lead to 7-3.
Aidan Colagrande recorded the first out of the seventh before handing the ball to Jacob Pedersen, who struck out one and induced a pop-up to end the frame. Stony Brook’s offense continued to roll in the bottom of the seventh. Zampieron led off with a single, Paulsen reached on catcher’s interference, and Azpilcueta delivered an RBI double. Doughty followed with an RBI single, and James Schaffer added a pinch-hit RBI single to push the lead to 10-3.
Pedersen breezed through the eighth with a 1-2-3 inning, striking out the final batter. In the ninth, left-hander Nicholas Rizzo entered to close it out. Manhattan managed to plate one run, but the Seawolves secured the 10-4 victory.
