Coming off its very impressive win against the heavily-favored LSU Tigers, Stony Brook baseball finds itself in unfamiliar territory- only a few victories from being College World Series Champions. The team that is “shocking the world” is in the College World Series for the first time in school history. The Seawolves are also just the third No.4 seed to win a regional since 1999.
The team did come “out of nowhere” in a sense, but in reality there should be no surprise that this team has advanced this far. It had a school-record seven players drafted, including junior Travis Jankowski, who was taken 44th overall by the San Diego Padres. Senior Pat Cantwell was taken in the third round, 125th overall by the Texas Rangers. Also taken in the 2012 MLB Draft were junior Maxx Tissenbaum (San Diego Padres); junior William Carmona (Philadelphia Phillies) in the 11th round; junior James Campbell (Los Angeles Dodgers) in the 12th round; junior Jasvir Rakkar (Chicago Cubs) in the 26th round; and senior Tyler Johnson (Oakland Athletics) in the 33rd round.
Stony Brook finished the season with a 46-11 record before the NCAA Tournament had started. It then won the America East tournament to earn a bid in to the Coral Gables, Fla. Regional. The Seawolves beat Miami, Missouri State and Central Florida to advance to the Super Regionals against LSU.
The Seawolves then beat LSU in three games to advance to the College World Series. After battling to a tough game one loss, Johnson, who holds the team’s all-time wins record, recorded the win to tie the series at one. Sophomore closer Frankie Vanderka pitched a complete game in the final game to clinch the series for the underdog Seawolves.
Stony Brook will take on UCLA, who is number two in the nation coming into the tournament.
