SBU Sports: Offense erupts for 15 runs, baseball earns first-ever CAA victory
The Stony Brook baseball team (6-11, 1-2 CAA) earned their first-ever Colonial Athletic Association victory as the Seawolves defeated the College of Charleston Cougars (13-6, 4-2 CAA) 15-11 on March 19 at The Ballpark at Patriots Point in Charleston, S.C.
The Seawolves would fall behind to a 1-0 deficit in the first inning, but then the Stony Brook offense would send 10 batters to the plate in the top of the second inning, tallying seven singles in the inning and exploding for six runs to take an early 6-1 lead.
Junior Matt Brown-Eiring led the second inning off with the first of his two hits this afternoon, followed by a knock from junior Ryan Micheli to get two runners on base with no outs.
After a ground-out by Stony Brook, the squad would produce five RBI singles in a row to give themselves the lead. Sophomore Anthony Gentile, senior Derek Yalon, junior Evan Fox, sophomore Matt Miceli, and graduate Evan Giordano all tallied RBI base-hits in a row.
Stony Brook sent out graduate Nick DeGennaro to make his third start of the season. The right-hander kept the Cougars offense at ease, as he allowed three earned runs and struck out two batters over his 3.0 innings on the hill. Senior Brandon Lashley entered the game for DeGennaro in the fourth inning and allowed just two earned runs over his 4.0 innings out of relief.
With the Cougar offense starting to awaken, the Seawolves offense rose to occasion by scoring two runs in fourth, one run in the sixth, and erupted for four runs in the seventh inning. In the fourth, Fox led the frame off by doubling and then scored following senior Shane Paradine driving in the leadoff hitter on a double. Paradine didn’t wait long before Micheli drove him in on a single up the middle, giving Stony Brook an 8-3 lead.
Then, after an RBI knock by Paulsen in the sixth inning to put Stony Brook ahead 9-4, the squad would score four runs in the next frame. This time, it was the middle of the order doing the damage as Giordano drove in Fox on a triple to right field, and Paradine drove in Giordano by lasering a ball up the middle. A few batters later, Paulsen would cap the inning off by launching a two-RBI double to give Stony Brook a 13-4 advantage.
But, the Cougars didn’t go away without a fight, as Charleston scored a combined seven runs in the seventh and eighth inning to cut the deficit to two runs. The Seawolves would answer right back as Paulsen and Yalon each had RBI knocks to give Stony Brook two insurance runs and the 15-11 lead.
Freshman Eddie Smink closed the door on the Cougars after striking out the final two batters of the game to secure the 15-11 victory.
The team returns to Long Island on Tuesday, March 21, to take on LIU at 3 p.m. in Brooklyn.
