Kevin Courtney’s bat and solid pitching gave the baseball team a series win against Binghamton this weekend. SBU (17-28, 9-12 AE) took two-of-three at the Bearcats home field.
Stony Brook is now 1.5 games behind fourth-place Binghamton (21-17, 10-10 AE) with nine league games remaining.
The teams split Saturday’s doubleheader, with SBU taking game one 5-1 and dropping game two, 3-1. On Sunday, the Seawolves took the rubber match, 8-4.
Going into the top of the fifth in Saturday’s first game, the teams were tied at one. Things seemed dismal after the first two batters of the inning struck out, but the Seawolves rallied, with freshmen Brett Tenuto and Jack Parenty singling to get on base and sophomore Cole Peragine drawing a walk after four pitches.
Kevin Courtney then broke the game open, hitting a grand slam on a 1-0 pitch over the right-center wall.
Up 5-1, junior Frankie Vanderka took over. The righty allowed just one more Binghamton player to get to second base, finishing the game on a strikeout to earn his sixth complete game of the year. He improved to 5-3 and allowed just one run on five hits.
Binghamton’s starter Jake Lambert also went the distance, giving up nine runs in the seven inning game. He fell to 4-2 on the season with the loss.
The Bearcats started game two hot, getting two runs off starter Brandon McNitt in the first inning of Saturday’s loss. The junior gave up an RBI single to Shaun McGraw, and allowed the second run after a Jordon Smucker groundout.
The Seawolves bats struggled against Binghamton starter Jack Rogalla. He allowed SBU’s offense just four hits.
Stony Brook’s only chance came in the eighth, when freshman Johnny Caputo doubled and senior Tanner Nivins singled to make it first and third with no outs. The Seawolves managed to eke out a run, but only after sophomore Kevin Krause, who recently returned from an injury, hit into a 4-6-3 double play to clear the bases.
Courtney, Nivins and Tenuto produced multi-hit games in the doubleheader.
McNitt threw 6-2/3 innings, allowing three runs on eight hits. He dropped to 2-5 after the loss.
In Sunday’s rubber match, strong pitching from starter Daniel Zamora and another homerun from Courtney helped the Seawolves build an 8-0 lead that they refused to relinquish.
SBU took two runs immedietly, with Parenty and Peragine scoring in the top of the first off singles from Caputo and Nivins. The Seawolves added two more in the third, when a Nivins double to left scored Courtney and another double from junior Anthony Italiano scored Nivins.
Courtney again broke the game open, this time with a three-run homer in the sixth to make the game 8-0. He finished the series with two home runs and seven RBI.
The Bearcats tried to make a comeback in the ninth, getting three runs off freshman Tim Knesnik, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Zamora threw seven innings and gave up just one run on four hits.
The Seawolves had twelve hits on the day, nine of which they got off Binghamton starter Jay Lynch, who gave up four runs in five innings. Previously, Lynch had allowed only one earned run in his last 21 innings pitched.
Nivins finished the weekend 6-for-11, with three stolen bases. Both he and Parenty produced three-hit games on Sunday.
The Seawolves will face Fairfield in a non-conference game at home on Wednesday before traveling to Baltimore next weekend to take on UMBC.
