
After eeking out three close victories, the Stony Brook baseball team is in prime position in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) standings.
Though nothing came easy, the Seawolves (20-17, 9-6 CAA) swept the Towson Tigers (10-29, 3-12 CAA) at Joe Nathan Field this past weekend. Stony Brook topped Towson 4-2 on Friday and pulled off a big rally to win 8-7 in 10 innings. With a sweep in line, starting pitcher J.T. Raab gave his team the best effort of his career and helped it clinch a sweep with a 4-3 victory on Sunday.
Game one got off to a rocky start for the Seawolves and starting pitcher Eddie Smink, who issued a pair of singles and a walk to load the bases with just one out. The Tigers capitalized on the opportunity when catcher Josh Janove — who started at first base — hit a sacrifice fly to right field and shortstop Jordan Peyton pulled a single through the left side to make it 2-0.
Stony Brook did not get much going against Towson starting pitcher Andrew Luczak, but it broke through in the bottom of the third inning courtesy of some shotty defense. After walks to center fielder Cam Santerre and third baseman Evan Fox kicked off the inning, shortstop Matt Miceli dribbled one left of the mound and was hit by the throw from Luczak. The ball caromed into foul territory, allowing Santerre to round third base and score. Afterwards, left fielder Matt Brown-Eiring chopped one to third base, allowing Fox to score the tying run.
Three batters later, second baseman Johnny Pilla took one up the middle to drive in Miceli and take the lead. Now staked to a lead, Smink retired nine of his final 11 hitters to preserve the lead through six innings. He went on to earn the win after allowing just two runs on four hits while striking out five batters and walking three.
Smink was able to use his secondary stuff to lead his team to victory.
“Sometimes, your fastball is just not locating, it’s just always not going to get it done,” Smink said in a postgame interview with The Statesman. “Sometimes, you’ve got to use your offspeed stuff and rely on that sometimes to get some outs against a good team.”
In the bottom of the sixth inning, a scary moment ensued where right fielder Rob Taylor was hit in the face with a pitch and had to be taken in an ambulance to Stony Brook University Hospital. His teammates later avenged him when Fox doubled the lead by lining a run-scoring single into center field. Taylor was diagnosed with a concussion.
Now leading 4-2, head coach Matt Senk then handed the ball to relief pitcher Erik Paulsen, who faced the minimum over the final three frames and threw just 25 pitches to earn the nine-out save. Paulsen allowed just a hit and a walk while striking out two. He also induced a pair of double-play ground balls to erase his two baserunners.
With a big win hanging in the balance, Paulsen was unfazed.
“I’ve been in the same situation a couple of times this year, and I just try not to let the pressure get to me,” Paulsen said. “Just throw strikes and focus in on the batter. Make it me and the batter, and that’s it.”
On a day where Smink and Paulsen combined for just seven strikeouts, the Seawolves’ played perfect defense behind them, to which Senk was pleased with.
“We preach all the time that if you pitch and play defense, you’re going to be in every game and you’re going to give yourself a chance to win every game,” Senk said. “That was the case today where maybe we didn’t have our best offensive day, we pitched and played defense which kept us in the day. Even when we were only able to add on one, we still continued to pitch and play defense which got us the W.”
Game two was a rollercoaster for Stony Brook, as starting pitcher Nick Rizzo allowed five earned runs on seven hits in just two-plus innings. After allowing a leadoff double and an infield single to start the top of the third inning, Rizzo was pulled in favor of relief pitcher Colin Rhein, who took the ball and changed the game. Janove bunted in the Tigers’ fifth run of the game to collect the run batted in (RBI) and make it 5-0, but Rhein stranded a pair with a strikeout to prevent any further damage.
Rhein went on to pitch eight innings of relief, allowing just two runs (one earned) on four hits and two walks while whiffing six. His stellar outing allowed the Seawolves to chip away and ultimately rally to win.
It started in the bottom of the third inning on some small ball, when a sacrifice fly by Fox, an RBI infield single by Miceli and a run-scoring groundout by Brown-Eiring cut it to 5-3. Peyton responded with a solo home run in the top of the fourth inning and Stony Brook failed to respond against Towson starting pitcher Jake Michel or relief pitcher Max Simpson over the next three innings. In the top of the sixth, the Tigers manufactured another run through the legs of center fielder Cole Stefano.
Stefano led off with an infield single to the right side, stole second base, advanced to third on a throwing error by catcher Ryan Micheli and then scored on a ground-ball double play.
Now with a four-run lead, Simpson beaned Santerre, Fox and Miceli to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning. Brown-Eiring lofted one to center field to score a run and Paulsen reached on a throwing error by Towson second baseman Casey Bishop to bring in another. Pilla followed by bouncing one to shortstop, driving home the third run of the inning to make it a 7-6 ballgame.
The Seawolves had a chance to tie in the bottom of the eighth inning after a leadoff walk to Micheli and another hit batsman to Santerre, but relief pitcher Justin Rebok stranded them. With Rebok back out there in the ninth to try and complete the five-out save, Erik Paulsen ripped a one-out double into right field and Pilla walked to put two men aboard. First baseman Brett Paulsen pulled through with his signature moment of the year when he slapped one off the glove of a diving Bishop and into right field to tie the game.
Now in the top of the 10th inning, Rhein wasted a pair of two-out singles by freezing Janove to give Stony Brook a shot to win it. A leadoff single and a steal of second base by Fox put the winning run in scoring position, and a sacrifice bunt by Miceli moved it to third base with one out. Brown-Eiring was intentionally walked, bringing up third baseman Joe DeLanzo to pinch hit for right fielder Matty Wright. DeLanzo almost walked it off with a home run to right field, but it hooked foul and he ultimately struck out against relief pitcher Kyle Emmons.
Now with Pilla batting with runners on the corners and two outs, Emmons balked to force in Fox with the walk-off run.
With a sweep on the table, the Seawolves rode Raab’s right arm to the promised land. Raab pitched his first career complete game, allowing just three runs (two earned) on six hits and struck out seven without walking anyone.
Raab attributed his career outing to his command.
“I was just pounding the zone; I had a two-pitch mix going,” Raab said. “I was able to flip my curveball in for strikes — threw it where I wanted to. I worked in and out with the fastball which helped. And of course, I’ve got to give credit to my defense.”
Much like the prior two games, Stony Brook still had to swing itself out of a deficit. In the top of the fourth inning with runners on first and third base and two outs, Raab picked off third baseman Taye Robinson at first. With Robinson in a rundown between first and second, the Tigers scratched across a run when left fielder Elijah Dickerson broke from third and beat the throw home to score.
In the bottom of the third inning, Micheli lifted a sacrifice fly into right field after a leadoff double and a successful steal of third base by Pilla. In the bottom of the fourth, a leadoff walk to Miceli set up Erik Paulsen for an RBI double up the left-center field gap. Pilla then singled in Paulsen to make it 3-1.
In the top of the seventh inning, Towson designated hitter Chris Akers sprayed a single into right field to score Stefano and cut the Seawolves’ lead down to just one run. However, they responded immediately in the home half of the frame when Erik Paulsen, Brett Paulsen and Micheli all walked to load the bases for Santerre, who did the same to force in a run.
In the top of the ninth inning, the Tigers got the leadoff man aboard when first baseman Bryce Frederick popped up to third baseman Evan Goforth, who then dropped it, allowing Frederick to move up to second base. With the tying run at the plate, Raab induced a flyout on Robinson and an RBI groundout on Stefano before getting Janove to hit a lazy fly ball into right field, where right fielder Chris Carson put the series away.
Pilla was the team’s most productive hitter in game three, as he went 2-for-4 with a double, an RBI and a run scored. After struggling on Friday and Saturday, he did extra batting practice with assistant coach Jordan Vujovich before the third game, to which he credited his performance.
“After batting practice today, me and Coach Vu went and did some extra work and just got my mindset right, and that really helped me,” Pilla said. “It just helped me go up there with a plan.”
Senk was riding high after his team completed the sweep, giving it eight wins in the last nine conference games.
“Yeah, it’s a really good feeling to start off [conference play] the way we did and bounce back in the way we have,” Senk said. “The guys have played great. Maybe it wasn’t our best offensive weekend, but we just did enough. It’s great to be in this position, but the next four weekends will be pretty intense. I think they’re up to it and looking forward to it.”
Stony Brook did not swing the bats particularly well, racking up just 19 hits over the three games and no more than seven in any of them. However, it grinded out 19 walks and nine hit-by-pitches.
Micheli was the team’s best hitter in the series, as he hit safely in all three games and went 4-for-7 with four walks, a sacrifice fly, a hit-by-pitch, an RBI and two runs scored. Santerre went 2-for-7 with a double, two walks, three hit-by-pitches, a stolen base, one RBI and three runs.
Brown-Eiring co-led the team with three RBIs despite going just 1-for-13. Pilla also drove in three runs while going 3-for-12 with a double, a walk, a steal and a run.
The Seawolves will look to stay hot on Tuesday when they host the Manhattan Jaspers at 3 p.m. The Jaspers are 12-25 this year after losing two out of three over the weekend to Marist.