In its penultimate midweek contest of the season, the Stony Brook baseball team rode a strong offensive day to victory.
Following a quiet weekend with the bats, the Seawolves (22-20, 8-10 CAA) hosted the Fairfield Stags (33-11, 18-3 MAAC) on Tuesday. Stony Brook scored eight runs in the first three innings, holding on to win its eighth midweek game of the season in 11-8 fashion.
After relief pitcher Nicholas Rizzo — who got the start in the game for head coach Matt Senk — threw a scoreless top of the first inning, the Seawolves instantly plated a pair of runs. With left fielder Matthew Jackson at second, designated hitter Nico Azpilcueta dropped a single just in front of Fairfield left fielder Nick Sturino. Right fielder Chanz Doughty then doubled to move Azpilcueta to third before he scampered home on a wild pitch to make it 2-0.
In the third, Stony Brook blew the game open. With one out and a runner at third, Azpilcueta lifted a shallow fly ball to right field for the second out. Although the pop fly was not hit terribly deep, Jackson tested Fairfield right fielder Matthew Bucciero and scored on a head-first dive to extend the Seawolves’ lead.
Facing Fairfield reliever Matthew Grabmann, Doughty clubbed a line drive over the left-field wall to extend the lead to 4-0, before second baseman Johnny Pilla went the other way for a home run of his own. The pair of homers was the second time that Stony Brook had gone back-to-back in the last four games.
“Me and [Doughty] have been talking about going back-to-back for a while now and we’ve been dying to do it,” Pilla said in a postgame interview with The Statesman. “I saw that his fastball was running a little bit so I just looked to get it middle-away. He left it up and I just caught it right in the direction of the wind.”
From there, the Seawolves continued to rally with two outs. After a double and a hit batsman, center fielder Chris Carson brought home a pair, tripling into the right-center field gap. He then came across the plate on a double by shortstop Matt Miceli, which capped off a six-run third inning to put Stony Brook up 8-0.
“I think if there is anything we learned from this past weekend, it’s that the longer your lineup is, the better you’re going to be,” Senk said. “We showed a much longer lineup today from one to nine and that was good to see.”
With a potent offense, the Stags did not go down easily. In the top of the fourth, they put a pair in scoring position with one out against reliever Ryan Dieguez, before Fairfield center fielder T.J. Schmalzle singled home his team’s first run of the game. Another run-scoring single added a second Stags run, before Senk pulled Dieguez for relief pitcher Aidan Colagrande.
Things did not get much better from there, as Fairfield third baseman Dean Ferrara kept the line moving with a run-scoring knock before shortstop Luke Nomura singled in two more. To finish the frame, Bucciero tucked a double inside the right-field line to cut the Stony Brook lead to 8-6.
With a blown lead on Friday still fresh on the Seawolves’ minds, they added on in the sixth, as first baseman Erik Paulsen singled home Jackson. The next inning, catcher Scott Gell lofted a two-run homer to left-center field to extend it to a five-run Stony Brook lead as the game headed to the eighth inning.
Trailing 11-6 in the ninth, the Stags plated two unearned runs off relief pitcher Jacob Pedersen before Fairfield catcher J.P. Kuczik flew out to Carson, wrapping up an 11-8 Seawolves win.
“That’s a good club over there,” Senk said. “I’ve seen some projections that have them as a potential three-seed in a regional so that’s a hell of a win. [Fairfield] has had our number the last few years so it was good to get this one.”
On the mound, Senk trotted out eight different arms to get through nine innings. Rizzo went the first two, allowing no runs and striking out three. After Dieguez and Colagrande struggled, reliever Vincent Mariella went 2 ⅓ innings, allowing a hit and a walk while picking up a pair of punchouts.
“Personally, that’s the best I’ve seen [Mariella],” Senk said. “It would be great if we can see some more of that from him over the last three conference weekends.”
Every batter in the Seawolves’ lineup tallied at least one hit. Doughty went 2-for-4 with a home run and a double while Pilla homered for his only hit in four trips to bat.
Gell went 1-for-3 with two runs batted in (RBI) on his seventh-inning home run. Azpilcueta drove in a pair as part of a 1-for-2 day, which included a sacrifice fly and a hit by pitch.
Out of the top spot in the order, Jackson went 2-for-4 with a double, three runs scored and a stolen base.
“I am comfortable in the leadoff spot,” Jackson said. “I always saw myself in that spot so it’s easier for me to simplify at the plate. I am just trying to jump on the first pitch, keep my hands through and catch barrels as much as possible.”
With their five-game homestand over, the Seawolves will hit the road for a seven-game road trip starting this weekend in a three-game series against the Towson Tigers. The Tigers have struggled this year, going 15-30 overall and 6-12 in Coastal Athletic Association play. Towson is coming off a midweek win over George Mason, as the Tigers took down the Patriots 8-6. First pitch on Friday is set for 3 p.m.
