SBU Sports: Softball clinches series win against Charleston Cougars 5-4

Stony Brook softball took on the Charleston Cougars at University Field on March 23 and when it was all over, the Seawolves clinched a series win 5-4. Kyra McFarland capped off a perfect day at the dish with a walk-off homer. Down to their final out, the Cougars tied the game in the seventh, but it was McFarland’s heroics that ultimately decided the Sunday matinee on Long Island.

Crimson Rice made her second start of the weekend series on Sunday, starting her day with a 1-2-3 inning. Stony Brook’s offense put up three runs in the home half of the first. Alyssa Costello started things with a single through the middle, scoring on Mia Vannelli’s fielder’s choice. Emma Scheitinger plated a run on a single and a third run scored on a fielding error.  Rice worked around an error behind her to complete a second straight scoreless inning to start her Sunday.

After the Seawolves went down in order in the second, Charleston evened things at 3-3 with a three-run inning of its own. The Cougars loaded the bases with nobody out and pushed a pair of runs across before registering an out.

Gabrielle Maday entered in relief of Rice, who failed to record an out in the third and allowed the first five hitters to reach base. Maday allowed one inherited runner to score, but stranded a pair of runners to keep things tied. Stony Brook put runners in scoring position in the third, fourth and fifth innings, but could not capitalize on the opportunities.

Maday retired the side in order in the fourth and fifth, then worked around trouble to strand a pair of runners in scoring position in a tied game in the sixth.

Nicole Allen pinch hit to lead off the sixth, doubling down the left field line. Allen moved up 60 feet on a Kaiya Simpkins sacrifice bunt and then scored the go-ahead run on a Costello sacrifice fly.

Down to their final out, the Cougars tied things up on a Paradis double over Scheitinger’s head in right. Maday induced a grounder to limit the damage to one run and give her offense a chance to win it in the bottom of the seventh.

McFarland did just that, slamming the second pitch she saw over the fence in center to walk it off.

“What a terrific ballgame. I think all around, all three parts of the game, our best game of the year,” head coach Megan T. Bryant said. “She’s a good hitter, she’s a fifth-year player. She works super hard in the weight room. She refused to lose there and that’s what you love to see out of a fifth-year veteran player,” Bryant added regarding McFarland’s walk-off homer.

The team hit the road for a mid-week doubleheader at Sacred Heart on March 25. The results were not available at press time but were posted online at www.tbrnewsmedia.com.