Coming off a big weekend with the bats, the Stony Brook baseball team rode a strong pitching performance to a win.
The Seawolves (7-7) welcomed the St. John’s Red Storm (3-11) to Joe Nathan Field for the first time ever. After the Red Storm took an early 2-1 lead, Stony Brook rallied to win on the back of three home runs, taking the ballgame in 5-3 fashion.
The Seawolves scored early after a quick zero from relief pitcher Jacob Pedersen — who got the start on Tuesday. In the bottom of the first inning, first baseman Erik Paulsen doubled, before coming in on a run-scoring single by second baseman Johnny Pilla.
However, this lead would be short-lived, as Pedersen surrendered a pair in the next half inning. With two outs and nobody on base, St. John’s catcher Adam Agresti looped a fly ball towards the left-field line. Left fielder Matt Jackson came in on the ball and overran it, putting Agresti on second base. Second baseman Anthony Brienza followed with a double to the left-field fence to knot the score at 1-1. Later in the inning, center fielder Jackson Tucker pulled a ball inside the third-base bag for a double which scored Brienza and gave the Red Storm a one-run advantage.
Both pitching staffs then settled down, with St. John’s starting pitcher Evan Hoeckele sidestepping multiple baserunners in the third and fourth innings. For Stony Brook, relievers Matt Canizares and Vincent Mariella each registered scoreless outings, getting the game to the bottom of the fifth inning with the Seawolves still trailing 2-1.
With two outs and Pilla aboard after a single, designated hitter Nico Azpilcueta lasered a two-run home run over the center-field wall to take a 3-2 lead.
“With a sidearming lefty on the mound, I was really trying to see something in so it would run back over the plate,” Azpilcueta said in a postgame interview with The Statesman. “After he went behind 1-0, I knew he had to come to me and he happened to leave one up and I got it.”
Now in the lead, Stony Brook continued to use the longball. With one out in the sixth, center fielder Cam Santerre pulled a home run to left to make the score 4-2. An inning later, Jackson took a 1-2 offering from St. John’s left-handed reliever Louis Marinaro over the left-field wall for his second home run of the season.
While Jackson’s home run made it a three-run ballgame, the Red Storm got that run right back in the eighth. Right fielder Will Cowan pulled an inside fastball from reliever Micah Worley inside the left-field foul pole for a solo homer, cutting the Seawolves lead 5-3.
From there, Worley registered the final out of the inning with a strikeout before head coach Matt Senk moved Paulsen from first base to the mound for the final three outs. Agresti immediately shot a line drive right past Paulsen for a hit, but then induced a flyout from pinch hitter Cristian Bernardini. Paulsen then forced St. John’s left fielder Jon LeGrande to tap a ball back to the mound, where he started a game-ending 1-6-3 double play.
After the pitching struggles that Stony Brook endured over the weekend, Senk sent seven different arms to the mound, only allowing three runs on five hits. As a staff, the Seawolves struck out seven batters, with reliever Ryan Dieguez punching a pair of tickets in a scoreless sixth inning.
“Overall, we did a good job of not handing out free bases,” Senk said. “Even the ones that did walk a batter or hit a guy, didn’t let that turn into a big inning. Quite a few of the guys we ran out there were having that issue up to this point in the season so it was really good to see that from those guys.”
Offensively, Stony Brook was led by Jackson, who went 3-for-4 with a home run, run batted in (RBI) and run scored. Jackson — who did not travel with the team for its first two series of the season — bashed his second longball of the year, establishing himself as the Seawolves’ everyday five-hole hitter.
“It’s definitely been a big jump from the first two weekends,” Jackson said. “All along, I just stayed confident in practice and tried to do everything the right way. Finally, the confidence has culminated.”
Azpilcueta homered for the second time in as many games as part of a 2-for-4 day, which saw him drive in a pair. In the third spot in the order, Pilla had two hits in four trips to bat including a run scored and an RBI. Paulsen went 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored. Santerre went just 1-for-4, but hit his first home run of the season.
Stony Brook, struck out only six times throughout the contest and nearly halved their runners left on base numbers from Sunday.
“I thought overall our two-strike approach was pretty good,” Senk said. “Even beyond the six strikeouts, some of our best at bats were with two-strikes.”
The Seawolves will stick around at Joe Nathan Field through the weekend, as they continue their tour of the Big East Conference. Stony Brook welcomes the Seton Hall Pirates starting Friday, for a three-game series. The Pirates have gone 5-10 on the season, after dropping their midweek game to the New Jersey Institute of Technology Highlanders in 9-6 fashion. First pitch on Friday is penciled in for 2 p.m.
