Stony Brook softball had an impressive weekend, sweeping UMBC on the road in Baltimore with a combined score of 34-4. Thanks partly to freshman Allison Cukrov’s record-tying 11th shutout of the season, the Seawolves improved to 8-1 in the America East.
Stony Brook won Sunday’s game 5-0 after sweeping Saturday’s doubleheader. Senior Lauren Maloney had a big weekend, finishing 5-for-8 with five RBI’s, including a solo home run on Sunday. Maloney had an RBI single in the first inning to put the Seawolves up early.
The Seawolves added two more runs in the second inning off of RBI singles from freshman Lauren Kamachi and sophomore Nicole Schieferstein. Maloney’s home run in the sixth inning put Stony Brook up 4-0. A UMBC throwing error gave the Seawolves their final run of the game off of a ball hit by senior Alyssa Hawley, which allowed junior Samantha Rossi to score from second base.
Cukrov allowed only one base runner, which was a fifth inning single, while striking out four. She lowered her America East leading ERA to 1.05 and improved to 17-4 overall after this weekend.
Saturday’s big offensive day scored the most runs in one day in the program’s history, eclipsing the prior mark by one run. Also, the 19 runs in game two of Saturday’s matchup was the most runs the Seawolves scored in one game in over five years.
The offensive picked up runs from up and down the line up. Senior Suzanne Karath set the pace with a game-starting triple in the first inning in game one. She later scored on an error to put the Seawolves up 1-0. Maloney hit a sacrifice fly later in the inning to put them up 2-0 before sophomore Jessica Combs doubled home a run to add to the lead.
Freshman Shayla Giosia hit her team-leading sixth home run of the season to lead off the third inning. She later added two more RBI’s in the fourth inning with a single to put Stony Brook up 7-1.
Stony Brook added three more runs in the fifth inning as Kamachi singled in a run, before Karath hit a two RBI single.
Cukrov picked up her 12th straight victory and improved to 16-4 with a complete game effort, where she struck out five batters.
The second game of the doubleheader started in Stony Brook’s favor, as the Seawolves sent 15 batters to the plate in the first inning where they scored 11 runs. Stony Brook had seven hits in the inning, while UMBC committed two errors, allowed two walks, a wild pitch and a hit-by-pitch. It was the most runs scored in an inning for Stony Brook since it scored 12 against Toledo on Feb. 19, 2010.
Hawley had two hits and scored two runs of her own in the first inning and finished 3-for-5 with two RBI’s in the game. Hawley was one of three Stony Brook players to have three hits in the second game, the other two being Maloney (3-3, two WBI, four runs) and senior Bernadette Tenuto (3-for-4, three RBI, two run).
All nine of Stony Brook’s starters had hits in the second game, and nine different players scored at least one run in the game. Stony Brook’s top five hitters, which consisted of Karath, Hawley, Giosia, Maloney and Tenuto, finished 11-for-20 with nine RBI’s and 14 runs scored.
Sophomore Alex Clark earned a victory in the game after relieving Cukrov in the third inning. Clark gave up a three-run home run in the third inning, but managed to settle down and finish the game.
Both of Saturday’s games ended after five innings due to the eight-run mercy rule. Stony Brook has won eight games this season by the mercy rule and has scored 10 runs or more in seven different games.
Stony Brook currently averages 5.4 runs per game, which is up from last season’s 3.1.
Their 34 totals runs this weekend as team ties the program record for most runs in a three game series.
The Seawolves have a seven-game week coming up with the first of those Tuesday at home at 2 p.m. against Rutgers.
