The baseball team took a 2-1 series victory in three exciting games against the Hartford Hawks this weekend.

The Seawolves took the victory in Sunday’s rubber match, which went 11 innings and ended on a Josh Mason RBI single, and split Saturday’s doubleheader, losing game one, 4-3, in extra innings and winning game two, 3-2.

Head coach Matt Senk was pleased with his team’s performance.

“It was a well-played series, we had three terrific games,” he said.

It seemed like the Seawolves would take Saturday’s first game, which started with SBU scoring in the second and third innings. But junior starter Frankie Vanderka gave up two runs in the fifth and another in the sixth before he was replaced in the seventh by Mason.

With the score tied at three, the seven-inning game went into extra innings. Hartford’s Brandy Sheetz opened the eighth with a triple, and scored off an RBI single from teammate Chris DelDebbio.

Down 4-3 in the bottom of the eighth, SBU couldn’t make a comeback. Junior Anthony Italiano walked to start the inning, and moved to second on a wild pitch. After fellow junior Kevin Courtney was hit by a pitch, senior Tanner Nivins bunted the ball back to the pitcher, who threw out Italiano at third. Sophomore Cole Peragine then hit into a double play to end the game.

Vanderka struck out a season-high eight batters and allowed three runs on six hits, walking two. Mason, who started the game in centerfield, got the loss after giving up the winning run.

“Unfortunately Frankie had that one tough inning,” Senk said.

The second game went better for the Seawolves pitching staff, with junior Brandon McNitt throwing a complete game, despite a twenty minute delay in the seventh inning. This was the seventh complete game a Stony Brook starting pitcher has thrown this season.

McNitt picked up his second win, allowing just two runs on eight hits. Like Vanderka in game one, he also struck out a season-high eight batters and walked two. Eighty seven of his 117 pitches were strikes.

After the Hawks picked up a run in the fourth inning, the Seawolves answered back with two runs of their own off a triple from Nivins. Hartford scored again in the sixth, making it 2-2 going into the eighth.

After McNitt shut down the Hawks offense, Italiano hit a two-out single to center to get on base. He was followed by Courtney, who drove a double into the right center gap to score Italiano and give SBU the lead.

McNitt finished an attempted Hawk rally by striking out Hartford’s Joe Roberti to end the game.

“Brandon threw terrific,” Senk said.

Mason, Peragine, and freshman Jack Parenty each had multi-hit games, and Nivins had three RBI in the doubleheader.

“We’ve been swinging the bats better since last Tuesday,” Senk said, referring to Tuesday’s 9-5 loss to Manhattan College, in which SBU posted 11 hits.

Stony Brook had 13 hits to the Hawks’ 16 in the doubleheader, but finished the weekend with 25 hits overall.

Sunday’s game was a fight, with both teams struggling to gain leverage.

Stony Brook had the upper hand for most of the game, scoring a run in the first off a throwing error from Hawks’ catcher James Alfonso.

They added two more runs in the seventh, after Courtney smacked a two-out double off the right center fence.

But Hartford got on the board in the seventh, scoring four runs. Starter Dan Zamora gave up a single and two doubles before being replaced by fellow freshman Tim Knesnick, who gave up a triple before settling down and getting three outs to end the inning.

SBU responded with a triple of their own, from freshman Johnny Caputo. Caputo then scored the tying run after Mason bounced a single past the third baseman.

Neither team could score in the eighth or ninth, and the game was tied at 4 after nine innings.

For the second time in the series the game went into extra innings.

After a tenth inning in which the Hawks threatened but couldn’t get a run across, the first two SBU batters struck out. Parenty singled past the second baseman and then took second.

With two outs and a man on second, it looked like game over when Peragine smoked the ball to right field. But Hartford’s right fielder Ryan Lukach fielded the ball and gunned Parenty at home, ending the inning and SBU’s chance to score.

The Seawolves, however, weren’t giving up the fight. After Knesnick retired the side in the top of the eleventh, Italiano opened with a single past the shortstop to get on first. Hartford reliever Jeremy Charles then struck out Courtney and Nivins to get two outs, but Italiano moved to second on a Caputo single.

With men on first and second and two outs, Mason smacked a single right down the left field line to bring Italiano home and end the game.

“We’ve been on the short end of extra inning games way too many times this year,” Senk said. “So it’s nice to be on the winning end.”

Freshman Zamora struck out six and gave up seven hits, but it was Knesnick who carried the Seawolves. He allowed only one run and three hits over five innings, striking out four and walking none to get his third win of the season.

“Timmy Knesnick, what could you say about him,” Senk said. “Five innings of relief and picked up the win. He pitched extremely well.”

Five Seawolves had multi-hit games on the Seawolves 12-hit day, led by Peragine, who went 3-for-5. Caputo went 2-for-5 and hit his fourth triple of the season. Mason, who had both the game-winning and game-tying RBI, also went 2-for-5.

Italiano, who scored the winning run in both of Stony Brook’s wins this weekend, threw out five would-be basestealers this weekend. He is now 26-for-54 on the season.

With the wins this weekend, SBU is 1.5 games behind fourth place Binghamton in the America East.

The Seawolves will play two non-conference games at home this week before traveling to Maine for a three-game conference series next weekend. Stony Brook takes on Bryant on Tuesday at 4 p.m. at Joe Nathan Field.