Scoring 40 total runs in three games, the Stony Brook baseball team took its first series at Joe Nathan Field in 2025.
After an offensive explosion on Tuesday, the Seawolves (6-7) kept their bats hot this weekend as they hosted the Niagara Purple Eagles (2-10). Despite trailing by four or more runs at some point in each of the three games, Stony Brook came out with a pair of wins with a 15-7 victory on Friday and a 16-6 drubbing on Sunday. The Purple Eagles salvaged the middle game, winning 10-9 in 10 innings on Saturday.
The weekend got off to a miserable start for the Seawolves, with ace starting pitcher Eddie Smink struggling for a second straight start. Stony Brook put up the first two runs of the game, but Smink hit a roadblock in the top of the second inning. Trailing 2-0, Niagara second baseman Connor Schramm found the right-center field gap to bring home two runs. Trying to limit the damage, Smink walked a batter before getting two outs. He then induced a fly ball from left fielder Curtis McKay — which got caught in the gusty winds that persisted throughout the series — sneaking out for a go-ahead grand slam.
However, Smink settled down from there, hanging three zeros on the scoreboard before giving up a one-out double in the sixth, which ended his night. In all, he was responsible for seven runs across 5 ⅓ innings while allowing six hits and four walks. Smink struck out six batters.
“[Smink] couldn’t even make practice [Thursday] because he was sick,” head coach Matt Senk said in a postgame interview with The Statesman. “He didn’t come out throwing as well as he’s capable. But to his credit, he rebounded from the six-run inning nicely, which is why we kept running him out there. He went out there and gutted it out and I give him a ton of credit for that.”
An inning prior to Smink’s departure, the Stony Brook offense turned the game on its head. After a single and a flyout to start the inning, Niagara went to its bullpen, calling on reliever Luke Glenn. Glenn promptly allowed back-to-back singles, which plated a run and cut the deficit to 6-4. Then, left fielder Matt Jackson connected on a breaking ball from Glenn, sneaking it over the right-field wall for a three-run shot, flipping the game in the Seawolves’ advantage at 7-6.
“I definitely knew it was going out,” Jackson said. “In practice, we focus so much on dead-reds, making sure we get barrels. That allows me to stay through the middle of the field much more and stay more confident at the plate.”
The Purple Eagles briefly tied the game in the sixth as reliever George Adams allowed an inherited runner to score after coming into the game in relief of Smink.
Knotted at 7-7, Stony Brook blew the doors off in the bottom of the sixth, registering a five-spot. With runners at second and third, right fielder Chanz Doughty drew a walk on a pitch that skipped in. As the ball got past Niagara catcher Jason Green, first baseman Erik Paulsen scampered home with the go-ahead run. Jackson then drove in another run with a run-scoring single to left before an error and a bases loaded hit batsman capped off the inning with a 12-7 Seawolves’ lead.
“Offensively, everything that has needed to be worked on, the players have worked their butts off to get fixed,” Senk said. “Now, we’re seeing that result and it’s fun for me to see.”
Jackson’s career day continued the next inning, when he poked a single through the middle to score Doughty, and then came around to score after a stolen base and a pair of wild pitches.
Stony Brook added a run in the eighth as Paulsen drove home another run with a single, extending the Seawolves’ lead to 15-7. Adams held down the fort on the mound, closing out the ballgame with 3 ⅔ scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out six.
“When I come in, my goal is to throw strikes,” Adams said. “My job is to get ahead in counts and get my team back in the dugout, giving us a chance to score more runs and get the lead back.”
Saturday got off to a similar start for Stony Brook, with starting pitcher Nicholas Rizzo allowing runs in each of the first three innings. A two-spot in the top of the third — which made the score 4-0 in favor of the Purple Eagles — chased Rizzo from the game, as reliever Vincent Mariella came on to start the fourth.
In the bottom of the third, the Seawolves halved Niagara’s lead when second baseman Johnny Pilla launched a two-run homer. After Mariella threw a zero in his first inning out of the bullpen, Pilla tacked on another with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourth, cutting the Stony Brook deficit to 4-3.
The Seawolves tied the game in the fifth, as with two outs and a man on third, center fielder Cam Santerre skied a ball into shallow right-center field. With the wind still being a factor, Niagara right fielder Camden Sanders got turned around as the ball fell to the turf, allowing a run to score and putting Santerre at third base.
Tied at four apiece, the Purple Eagles took a 5-4 lead in the following inning as Mariella finally gave up a run in his third inning of work. However, Stony Brook’s bats once again woke up, plating four in the bottom of the sixth.
While the Seawolves loaded the bases against Niagara reliever Evan Wilde, a strikeout of Doughty brought the Purple Eagles within an out of escaping the jam. Niagara head coach Matt Spatafora then went deeper into his relief corps, bringing in Maximilian Ramirez IV. Tasked with retiring Jackson, Ramirez IV walked the left fielder to force in the tying run. Then, catcher Luke Szepek drilled a three-run double into the left-field corner, putting Stony Brook ahead 8-5.
After the two sides traded scores in the seventh, the eighth inning proved to be pivotal. Relief pitcher Micah Worley walked the Niagara leadoff batter, forcing Senk to bring in Alex Jankowski. Jankowski did not fare much better, walking his first assignment to bring the potential tying run to the plate. After getting an out, Jankowski served up a low breaking ball, which Niagara first baseman Shawn Cameron lined into the right-center field gap, reaching the wall and plating a pair. With Cameron on third after the triple, he scored the equalizer later in the inning as shortstop Jacob Brooks lined a single into left, tying the ballgame at nine.
The Seawolves tried mounting rallies in each of the next two innings, with a leadoff hit by Jackson and a stolen base putting a runner in scoring position to start the eighth. However, a fly out by shortstop Matt Miceli halted the threat. In the ninth, Paulsen reached on an infield hit and moved to second on a ground ball ahead of an intentional walk, but pinch hitter Mike Villani struck out to leave another two runners aboard and send the game to extra innings.
“In every one of the 10 innings that were played today, there was somebody left in scoring position,” Senk said. “We ended up scoring nine, but we easily could have scored 14 or 15.”
The lack of clutch hitting immediately proved to be the difference in the tenth as reliever Jacob Pedersen began his second inning of work. After a bunt hit and a sacrifice bunt, McKay sent a go-ahead, run-scoring double to the fence in left-center field, giving the Purple Eagles a 10-9 lead. After another double by third baseman Vincent Mauro moved McKay to third, Pedersen limited the damage by striking out a pair to cap off the frame, still trailing by just a run.
As was the case all day, Stony Brook got the leadoff man on as Jackson was plunked by Niagara relief pitcher Andrew Damiani. Jackson then advanced to second on a hit-and-run ground ball by Szepek. Spatafora then brought in reliever Carter Fink, who got Chris Carson — who replaced Paulsen defensively — looking at strike three, before inducing a fly ball from Miceli to wrap up a four hour and three minute marathon.
“When you look at our pitching staff, who is pitching well?” Senk said. “If you look at the stats, our walks and strikeouts are something like a one-to-one ratio, which is just frankly atrocious. It seems like we start just about every inning by putting somebody on base.”
In the loss, Senk deployed five different pitchers, with none of them throwing a scoreless outing. Collectively, the staff walked five batters and hit one and struck out just three. Mariella was the standout of the bunch, going three innings while giving up just a lone run on three hits.
The pitching could not have gotten off to a worse start on Sunday, as starter Hunter Colagrande was greeted with a leadoff wall-ball triple from Niagara center fielder Nate Milk. McKay drove in the game’s first run with a sacrifice fly before a double by Mauro — his fourth of the series — put runners at second and third. Catcher Rees Kozar then doubled McKay home ahead of an infield hit by Brooks, which brought in the third Purple Eagles’ run of the frame. With Kozar now at third, Sanders lifted a fly ball to center field, allowing Kozar to score and putting Niagara up 4-0.
Stony Brook’s offense quickly responded. After third baseman Evan Goforth was hit by a pitch to lead off, Paulsen drew a walk and Pilla flew out. With two still aboard, designated hitter Nico Azpilcueta slammed a three-run homer over the center-field batter’s eye to trim the Niagara lead to 4-3.
In the top of the second, the Purple Eagles continued to shell Colagrande. After a leadoff strikeout, Milk and Cameron delivered consecutive doubles to plate a run, before Cameron moved up 90 feet on a wild pitch. Colagrande then got McKay to swing over a breaking ball to get the second out. Now facing Mauro, Colagrande spiked a curveball and as Cameron dashed home, the two got tangled up at the plate, with the runner originally ruled out on the tag. During the collision, Colagrande sustained an ankle injury which forced him to exit the game.
As trainers helped the Stony Brook starter to his feet, the umpires convened and overruled the original call, stating that the ball came out of Colagrande’s glove upon contact and called Cameron safe, scoring the sixth Niagara run.
From there, Senk turned to John Rizzo, who took over mid-at bat and got Mauro looking to retire the side.
The Seawolves got a run closer in the bottom of the second, but flipped the game on its head in the bottom of the third. After John Rizzo notched a pair of strikeouts in a scoreless top half, Paulsen launched a ground-rule double to the gap in left-center. With one out and runners at the corners, Jackson scored Paulsen on a groundout before Doughty blasted a two-run shot off the right-field scoreboard, turning a 6-5 deficit into a 7-6 lead.
“They threw me a lot of offspeed pitches in my prior at bat, so I really focused on making an adjustment,” Doughty said. “Thankfully, I did.”
Stony Brook was not done after Doughty’s home run, as Santerre was plunked and quickly took second on a stolen base. Catcher Nicholas Solorzano then cashed him in with a single before eventually scoring on a long triple to right-center by Miceli.
Now ahead 9-6, John Rizzo used a double play to sidestep a pair of singles in the fourth. In the bottom half, Paulsen got the Seawolves into double-digits as he dropped the barrel on an inside breaking ball from Niagara reliever C.J. Hurley, clubbing it over the right-center field wall for a solo home run.
Miceli picked up another run batted in (RBI) in the bottom of the fifth, chasing home Doughty with a single. Paulsen struck again in the sixth, this time launching a ball even further, landing beyond the right-center field fence near Circle Road. Later in the inning, Pilla came home on a passed ball and Doughty looped a single over a drawn-in infield to score a pair, stretching Stony Brook’s lead to 15-6. For good measure, Miceli notched his third hit of the game later in the inning, scoring Doughty from third and making it a 10-run game.
With the sizable lead and it being a travel day for the Purple Eagles, John Rizzo only needed to record three outs to enact the run rule. He did so easily, striking out a pair and polishing off his second win of the year with 5 ⅓ scoreless innings that saw him strikeout six Purple Eagles. He allowed only two hits and did not walk a batter in relief after Colagrande’s injury.
“Our bullpen is one collective unit,” Rizzo said. “We break it down as a staff every day; we have meetings every day and we always support each other. When [Colagrande] goes down, it’s my job to go pick him up. That’s what it comes down to because we all want to win.”
Paulsen was the hero of the weekend, going 8-for-11 in the three games with two home runs, two doubles, four RBIs, four walks and nine runs scored. For the season, Paulsen raised his batting average from .316 to .408.
“I like to attack first pitches and I like to attack heaters in the zone,” Paulsen said. “When I am able to do that, it allows me to help the team create runs. I lost a ton of weight last season and I tried to gain it back in the offseason, as I was hoping to hit some more power.”
Jackson was an on-base machine for the Seawolves, going 4-for-8 while drawing six walks and being hit by a pitch. He also drove in a co-team leading seven runs, including five in Friday’s win. Jackson slugged a home run, stole four bases and scored six times.
Doughty tied Jackson with seven RBI, tallying five hits in 11 trips. Doughty crossed the plate six times — once on a home run — and chipped in a double. Pilla hit .500 across the weekend, going 6-for-12 with a home run, five RBI, five runs and three stolen bases.
Azpilcueta went 3-for-11 with a home run, driving in three. Miceli had four hits in 13 at bats, including a three-hit performance on Sunday. He scored twice and drove in three, tallying a triple for his only extra-base hit.
“Depth in any area of your game is certainly huge,” Senk said. “It was great to see some of our guys that were struggling go up there and do a good job at the plate. To be able to make your lineup long, which guys like [Miceli] can do for us, is huge.”
Stony Brook will stick around at Joe Nathan Field as it plays game four of its seven-game homestand on Tuesday. The Seawolves will host the St. John’s Red Storm, who have gone 3-10 this season after taking two of three from the New Jersey Institute of Technology this past weekend. First pitch on Tuesday is slated for 3 p.m.
