The last time the Seawolves were at Citi Field was to celebrate their historic run at the College World Series. Today they were back, this time as the home team, taking on the St. John’s Red Storm. This trip to Citi Field wasn’t as kind to the Seawolves though, as they fell 7-1 in 12 innings.
The game remained tied at one from the fifth inning, until the Red Storm finally broke through in the twelfth. After St. John’s took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning, the Seawolves answered back in the bottom of the fifth. Freshman Austin Shives tripled in sophomore Michael Roehrig to tie the game.
Things remained tied all the way to the twelfth inning, but both teams did have their chances. St. John’s threatened in the sixth and seventh innings, but junior Josh Barry and freshman Kenny Ball were able to limit the Red Storm.
Stony Brook had opportunities to score in the eighth and twelfth innings, but failed to score any runs. “If you’re only going to get six of them (hits) then they need to be timely hits,” head coach Matt Senk said. “Just getting timely more than anything but getting a large quantity of them.”
Junior Bryan Tatelman entered the game for the Seawolves in the twelfth, but failed to get any of the batters he faced out. He walked two and gave up one hit before being replaced by senior G.C. Yerry. Yerry faced just four batters and only got one out. He hit Martin Kelly with the bases loaded to force a run in, what turned out to be the game-winning run.
The big blow came against the next batter, Frank Schwindel. Schwindel doubled in three runs, to put the Red Storm up 5-1. Sean O’Hare followed with a double of his own to plate Schwindel. Kyle Lombardo came up a few batters later and doubled in O’Hare to give the Red Storm a 7-1 lead.
Stony Brook came up in the bottom of the twelfth inning, but stranded runners at first and second. Joey Christopher picked up the win for St. John’s, as he pitched three innings and gave up just three hits and struck out one. Tatelman got the loss for the Seawolves, as he falls to 0-3 on the season.
Shives had two of the six hits for the Seawolves, as did sophomore Cole Peragine. Freshmen Jack Parenty and Johnny Caputo each had a hit as well.
“This was a great experience for our players and our program and up until that top of the twelfth, it was a really terrific game and it’s unfortunate ended the way it did,” Senk said. “It’ll be an experience our guys will look back on. It’s been real enjoyable.”
