Facing one of the most potent offenses in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA), the Stony Brook baseball team took a major fall in the conference standings.
After a sweep last weekend put them into a playoff spot, the Seawolves (21-20, 8-10 CAA) hosted the William & Mary Tribe (19-24, 12-6 CAA) this weekend at Joe Nathan Field. Despite going up 6-0 in the series opener, Stony Brook fell 8-6 on Friday before getting run-ruled in 15-0 fashion on Saturday. While the bats woke up on Sunday, the Seawolves dropped the series finale 8-6 to cap off a fruitless weekend.
“[William & Mary] outhit us, outpitched us and outplayed us,” head coach Matt Senk said in a postgame interview with The Statesman. “We need to be able to get more out of everybody on our team.”
The weekend got off to a perfect start for Stony Brook. Starting pitcher Eddie Smink twirled a 1-2-3 inning before it sent 11 men to bat in the home half of the first, as six of them eventually scored. With center fielder Nick Zampieron aboard after an infield single, first baseman Erik Paulsen slugged a two-run homer to the opposite field. Before William & Mary starter Jack Weight even had a chance to catch his breath, designated hitter Nico Azpilcueta launched a booming solo shot over the batter’s eye in dead center to make it a 3-0 Seawolves advantage.
“Outstanding start,” Senk said. “Those two homers were absolute bombs to the middle of the field which is exactly what we try to do at the plate.”
Two batters later, catcher Luke Szepek got involved, lining a solo homer of his own over the left-field wall. After a two-out single and a walk, William & Mary head coach Rob McCoy went straight to his bullpen, bringing in reliever Tom Bourque. Bourque was greeted rudely, as shortstop Matt Miceli ripped a line drive into left-center field that rolled to the fence, allowing two runs to cross. After going up 6-0, the Seawolves would not score another run for 16 consecutive innings.
The Tribe chipped away with a run in the second before William & Mary right fielder Christian Rush sent a ball onto Circle Road to cut the deficit to 6-2 leading off the fourth inning. Three singles around a strikeout loaded the bases with one out, but Smink was able to wiggle his way out of the jam, striking out catcher Jerry Barnes III and inducing a popup from shortstop Owen Wilson.
The next inning, William & Mary got even closer and knocked Smink out of the game. Smink got a groundout from William & Mary center fielder Ben Parker to start the frame, but left fielder Lucas Carmichael left the yard to make it a three-run game. A single by third baseman Jamie Laskofski proved to be it for Smink.
In relief, Senk turned to Jacob Pedersen who allowed an infield hit to load the bases, before a soft single by William & Mary first baseman Anthony Greco brought in a run. Still ahead 6-4, Pedersen kept the damage to just two runs, as designated hitter Charlie Iriotakis grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.
With the book closed on the starter, Smink lasted 4 ⅓ innings, allowing four runs on eight hits and a walk while striking out four batters.
From there, Stony Brook held the lead until the eighth, when the Tribe rallied against Pedersen. A single and a walk opened the inning, but Pedersen provided himself with an avenue through the jam by forcing a pair of popouts. After a lengthy battle, Wilson kept the inning going with a single into right field, bringing up Parker with the bases loaded.
With Parker — the CAA’s leading hitter — already 0-for-4 on the day, the dam broke on Pedersen, as Parker tucked a line drive inside the left-field line to score two and knot the score at six.
“I was hoping that [Parker] would come out of here hitless,” Senk said. “He leads the conference in hitting and he’s terrific. You can only hold great hitters down for so long and that was the case with him in his last at bat.”
Senk then tried to play the matchups, calling on lefty reliever Aidan Colagrande to face Carmichael. Colagrande attacked him with a good outside slider, but Carmichael flicked the ball over Miceli at short to bring home another two and give William & Mary the lead.
On the other side, relief pitcher Daniel Lingle continued to work for the Tribe after entering in the seventh inning. He set down the Seawolves in order in the eighth before allowing a one-out single to Miceli in the ninth. Nonetheless, pinch hitter Scott Gell and Paulsen each flew out to Parker, wrapping up an 8-6 comeback victory for William & Mary.
Despite the six-run first, Stony Brook managed just six runs on nine hits. The offensive struggles were highlighted in the late innings, as the Seawolves had a stretch of 11 consecutive batters retired between a two-out single by Szepek in the fifth, and Miceli’s single in the ninth.
“It’s hard to believe that after what we did in the first, we only got three hits the rest of the game,” Senk said. “It seemed like we were trying to do too much. All of a sudden, we started hitting a lot of balls to the pull side which tells me that we got away from our approach and were trying to do too much.”
Saturday was no better for Stony Brook, as Laskofski got William & Mary going early by tripling home Parker off starting pitcher Ty Panariello in the first inning. In the second, Parker picked up his second double of the ballgame, scoring Greco from second base with two outs. The scoring spree continued into the third, as Greco dropped a single in front of Zampieron which allowed Laskofski and Rush to cross the plate.
At the plate, the Seawolves managed nothing, as William & Mary starter Zach Boyd retired the first seven Stony Brook hitters. After allowing a one-out single to third baseman Brett Davino in the third, Boyd retired nine of the next 10 Seawolf hitters.
The Tribe blew the game open in the fifth off relief pitcher Vincent Mariella. With one out, Szepek was tagged with catcher’s interference, putting a runner aboard. After a strikeout of Wilson, Parker reached on an error by Davino — his second of the game and Stony Brook’s third — ahead of Carmichael, who blasted a three-run homer to make the score 7-0.
“The errors are completely uncharacteristic of who we are,” Senk said. “We’re right near the top of not only the conference in fielding percentage, but also on the national level. Coming out of yesterday, I guess it snowballed.”
A walk to Laskofski opened the fifth inning, before four straight singles by the Tribe, with the latter two scoring runs. Mariella then walked Wilson on four pitches to force in the third William & Mary run of the inning.
Senk had seen enough of Mariella, bringing reliever Matt Sgambati into the game. His first assignment was Parker, who continued his monster game with a grand slam to make the score 14-0. The Tribe added a run in the seventh, before the game was called due to the run-rule.
For William & Mary, Boyd went the distance, allowing three hits and no walks over seven shutout frames. He struck out five Seawolves.
Following the game, Senk gathered his team under the dugout roof, sheltered from the rain for nearly a half hour.
“I was just honest with them,” Senk said. “That’s something that I’ve been doing for 35-40 years and that’s telling the guys exactly how I feel. Sometimes I get mad. Sometimes I get emotional. The biggest thing that I can’t let them forget is that they’re part of a team and this is not going to happen because of any one individual thing that any of them does. It’s going to be because of all of us.”
The spark seemed to come instantly on Sunday. Starting pitcher John Rizzo allowed a leadoff double to Parker, but set down the next three in order. Then after being inserted into the top spot on the lineup card, left fielder Matthew Jackson blasted a homer to right-center field off William & Mary starter Nick Lottchea.
However, the Tribe returned the favor with a run in the second. With two outs and runners on first and second, Wilson ripped a run-scoring double to left-center field. After Stony Brook went down scoreless in its half of the second, Carmichael opened the top of the third with a tape-measure shot. Greco picked up a run batted in (RBI) later in the inning, lining a ball back at Rizzo with runners at the corners. Despite the ball pinballing off him, Rizzo tracked it down and made a behind-the-back flip to first for the out. Nonetheless, Laskofski scored from third to make it 3-1 William & Mary.
In the next two half innings, right fielder Chanz Doughty and Laskofki traded sacrifice flies, sending the game to the bottom of the fourth with the Tribe ahead at 4-2.
In the bottom of the fifth, Stony Brook flipped the scoreboard. Facing William & Mary relief pitcher Carter Lovasz, Jackson singled and stole second with one out. Paulsen then hammered a two-run homer to right-center, tying the game at four apiece. Two batters later, Doughty ripped a laser over the left-field wall to give the Seawolves a 5-4 lead.
The lead was short-lived, as Senk sent Rizzo back out for the sixth. After catching Parker looking to open the frame, Carmichael walked and Rush reached on an infield hit. Even though Stony Brook had a lefty ready in the bullpen, Senk let Rizzo face the left-handed bat of Laskofski, who burned the Seawolves for a go-ahead, three-run homer. Now behind 7-5, Rizzo let up a single to William & Mary second baseman Derek Holmes before giving way to the aforementioned southpaw, reliever George Adams.
“We had Adams up but we trust Rizzo in that spot,” Senk said. “Rizzo is one of our few pitchers that attacks hitters and comes right after them and recently, he has been more consistent than [Adams]. In hindsight, if I had known that it would’ve ended like that, I doubt I would have gone that way but at the time, that was the way to go.”
In spite of the deficit, Stony Brook continued to battle. In the bottom of the seventh, second baseman Johnny Pilla walked, before stealing second with two outs. After Gell was plunked, center fielder Chris Carson — who played left in the first two games — dunked a bloop single into center field to plate a run. However, he was thrown out advancing to second on the play, ending the threat.
Still clinging to a one-run lead, Iriotakis gave the Tribe some breathing room, hitting a long ball with one-out in the top of the ninth.
Now behind 8-6, Doughty walked to lead off the home half of the ninth against William & Mary reliever Reed Interdonato. Pilla was then rung up on strike three before Szepek chased a slider for the second out. Gell walked to put the potential tying run on base, but Carson waved over a breaking ball to end the series in an 8-6 win for the Tribe.
“Much better at bats today until the very end of the game,” Senk said. “Game on the line there and [Interdonato] strikes the side out, especially on some balls that were out of the strike zone. We had a few spots where we struck out with runners on base that made a big difference in us not finding a way to win.”
Despite facing the pitching staff with the highest earned run average in the conference, Stony Brook scored just 12 runs in three games. On the flip side, the Tribe scored 31 runs and continued to lead the CAA in batting average, runs, hits and doubles.
Paulsen was one of the lone standouts, going 3-for-10 with a pair of long balls. He also drove in four runs and scored three times. Azpilcueta went 2-for-12, but slugged his CAA-leading 15th home run of the season on Friday.
Despite appearing in all three games, Jackson had just five at bats. He took advantage of his opportunities, going 3-for-5 with a home run and two runs scored. He also stole a bag.
After a three-hit game on Friday, Miceli finished the weekend with five hitless at bats. Nonetheless, he finished the series 3-for-9 with two RBIs, a double and a stolen base.
Doughty went 2-for-9 with a home run and two RBIs. All of his damage came as part of a two-hit effort on Sunday. Szepek went 2-for-11 but drove in a run with his first-inning blast on Friday. Carson chipped in two knocks on the weekend.
According to Senk, third baseman Evan Goforth missed his third consecutive weekend with a knee injury.
Before returning to CAA play, Stony Brook will welcome the Fairfield Stags on Tuesday. Fairfield is 33-10 this season and has dominated its conference slate, going 18-3 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Most recently, the Stags swept Quinnipiac at home. First pitch on Tuesday is set for 3:30 p.m.
