The Stony Brook softball team’s energy and will to win led its players to a three-game sweep of Boston University this weekend.
“We talk all the time about energy and enthusiasm and as a team whether you’re on the field or in the dugout and it was there for us today,” head coach Megan Bryant said.
Saturday’s doubleheader opener at University Field went scoreless until the top of the fifth inning when Boston’s Emily Felbaum nearly hit a homerun and sent Brittany Clendenny, who was on second, home.
The Seawolves were unable to answer. All three batters in the bottom of the fifth struck out. It wasn’t until an inning later that they were able to pull ahead. Sophomore Bria Green sent freshman Alexandra Pisciotta and junior Olivia Mintun home with a hard ground ball.
Stony Brook’s defense held the Terriers, ending the game up 2-1, after the top of the seventh inning went scoreless.
Sophomore Allison Cukrov pitched 81 strikes including 10 strikeouts, compared to Boston’s pitcher, Lauren Hynes, who only pitched 53 strikes and five strikeouts. The Seawolves had three hits including Green’s two, and Boston had five.
“They came to our house and we weren’t going to let them take one from us,” sophomore pitcher Cukrov said.
The second game started at a faster pace than the first. With the bases loaded at the bottom of the first inning, junior Jessica Combs stole home plate when she realized that Boston’s catcher did not catch the ball. With freshman Kellie Reynolds still at bat, she drained the ball right down the middle, sending Mintun home, who eventually sent Pisciotta, when the Seawolves were up at bat again.
The Terriers were out for blood though, scoring three runs in one inning to tie it up at the top of the third. Megan Valpano sent the ball into the outfield, sending Jayme Mask home, but it was ultimately the home run that Amy Ekart hit that sent her and Valpano home that did it.
The score was not tied for long. Freshman Haley King hit a home run at the top of the fourth to put Boston up by one. After that play, Stony Brook changed pitchers from junior Christine Lucido to freshman Jane Sallen, who finished out the inning.
The Seawolves did not give up though. At the bottom of the sixth, freshman Melissa Phelan hit a home run that scored two runs, and ultimately won the game, 5-4 for Stony Brook.
Boston then changed its pitcher from Erin Schuppert back to Hynes, who pitched game one, but it was too late.
Cukrov finished off the last inning on the mound to secure the win.
Lucido, Sallen and Cukrov pitched 77 strikes, collectively and Schuppert and Haynes pitched 61. Stony Brook finished the game with 10 hits, just one less of Boston’s total. Combs and Mask each had three hits for both teams.
“This was obviously a real good day for our team in terms of not just the two wins, but how we played and I thought we had an overall good approach today,” Bryant said.
The Seawolves completed the sweep with an 8-0 win on Senior Day Sunday.
Stony Brook scored seven runs in the third and another in the fourth to bring the game to an early ending. A two-run homer over the centerfield fence by sophomore Bria Green and a three-run double at the end of the third by Pisciotta helped give SBU the dominating lead.
The Seawolves outhit the Terriers, 9-2, with Combs, Mintun and Reynolds each getting two hits.
Cukrov shut down Boston, throwing five scoreless innings.
The Senior Day ceremony celebrated lone senior Gina Bianculli, who scored off Pisciotta’s double. The second baseman finished the her final regular season as a Seawolf with a .197 batting average.
The Seawolves, who beat Seton Hall and Iona earlier in the week, have now won six straight games. They will enter the playoffs as the No. 4 seed, playing No. 1 ranked Albany on Thursday in Vestal, NY. Game time has yet to be announced.
