Despite two homers from Kevin Courtney and a three-hit day on Sunday for Cole Peragine, the baseball team was swept by the University at Albany this weekend. They dropped both games of a doubleheader on Saturday, 5-4 and 9-6, before falling 4-3 in Sunday’s matchup.
The Seawolves drop to 4-8 in the America East and 9-21 overall with this weekends losses.
SBU had a 4-0 lead in game one behind the pitching of junior Frankie Vanderka, but the Great Danes bit back in the sixth. A two-out single from Gordon Madej scored the runners from second and third to make it 4-2, and a two-run homer from Josh Nethaway tied the game.
Stony Brook brought in freshman Tim Knesnick for the seventh inning. He gave up a single to Greg Muller, who then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Albany’s catcher Evan Harasta then came up and blasted a single to left field to bring in Muller and end the game.
Vanderka walked none and struck out four, allowing four runs and six hits in six innings. Knesnick took the loss after giving up the game winning run and is now 2-1.
Albany immediately turned it on in the second game, scoring four runs in the second off SBU starter Brandon McNitt. The junior gave up a bases loaded triple to Albany’s Nolan Gaige to make the score 4-0.
The Great Danes scored two more runs, making it 6-0, before the Seawolves started to come back. SBU was largely helped by Courtney, a junior, who smashed a two-run home run over the right field wall in the fourth and another two-run homer to the same spot in the eighth.
Despite having the bases loaded and the tying run at the plate in the ninth, Stony Brook could not complete the comeback. A sacrifice fly and two strikeouts ended the game and gave Albany their second win of the day.
McNitt walked two and struck out six over seven innings. He dropped to 1-3 after giving up eight runs and nine hits.
Peragine and senior Tanner Nivins had multi-hit games, combining for six hits. Freshman Jack Parenty, who previously had hit safely in 18 consecutive games, went 0-for-4 in both games, ending his streak. The Seawolves had 15 hits on the day, but also struck out 19 times.
Sunday’s game went much the same way, with SBU stranding a season-high 15 men on base in the 4-3 loss.
Albany took the lead with a four-run inning in the fourth, making the score 4-1. Although SBU had several chances to tie, they could not convert the runners into runs. The closest they got was in the sixth inning, when Courtney hit a ground ball to third. Peragine, who was on third base, started to go, but got caught in a rundown and was tagged out. Freshman Johnny Caputo then struck out to end the inning and the Seawolves chance to tie.
Stony Brook continued to put runners on in the final innings, but could not get a run in.
Freshman starter Daniel Zamora took the loss, allowing four runs on four hits. He struck out eight and walked one over the course of seven innings. He dropped to 1-6 with the loss. Over his last 13-1/3 innings pitched, he has struck out 17 batters.
Courtney, who has a total of eight home runs as a Seawolf, finished the series 4-for-9, with two home runs and 5 RBI. Peragine added three hits on Sunday, hitting safely in five consecutive games. The Seawolves finished the series with 23 hits.
Stony Brook will play Iona at Iona on Tuesday before returning home for their next five games. They play a non-conference matchup against Manhattan College at Joe Nathan Field on Wednesday, before starting a three-game conference series against Hartford on Friday. First pitch against Manhattan is at 3:30 p.m.
