The Stony Brook Softball team went into this weekend winning four of their first five conference games, winning two of three at home against Albany and then sweeping two games from UMBC.

They strengthened that record this weekend, when they posted a home sweep of the Hartford Hawks, utilizing the mercy rule twice.

“It was a great team effort today,” head coach Megan Bryant said after the doubleheader Saturday. “We’re starting to hit our stride.”

Game one featured a pitchers’ duel, pitting Stony Brook’s Allison Cukrov against Hartford’s Zuzana Kudernatschova.

Cukrov and the Seawolves struck first in the bottom of the second, when Diane Caruso singled to left field, scoring first baseman Melissa Phelan and putting Stony Brook on the board first.

The Hawks would finally push one across on Cukrov in the fifth, and she had a big part of the blame for it.

With a runner on first and no outs, Hartford’s Meghan Wynn grounded the ball softly back to the junior pitcher, who then threw it wildly past Phelan and into right, pushing Hartford’s Erin Okoniewski from first to third.

The Hawks’ next batter, Margaret Betz, grounded the ball to Olivia Mintun, who had no choice but to get the out at first. This scored Okoniewski and tied the game at one.

Nicole Schieferstein then got the Seawolves right back in the lead in the bottom half of the fifth, when she singled to start the inning.

Then after being sacrificed over to second and advancing to third on a groundout, Shayla Giosia roped one to left for one of her two hits on the day, scoring Schieferstein and giving the Seawolves the lead back for good 2-1.

Cukrov would retire the last four she faced, finishing an outstanding day in which she only allowed three hits while striking out seven.

Game two had a lot more offense for the Seawolves, and it started early.

Bria Green, who was 0-3 with two K’s in the first game, sent a three-run home run to left field to get things started for Stony Brook.

“Bria’s one of our best hitters,” coach Bryant said confidently. “Hopefully she goes forward from here.”

Green and the Seawolves both would, scoring three more in the bottom of the second.

This was highlighted by an RBI double by Giosia, who finished 3-5 in the two games, and another RBI for Green, this time with a single to left.

By this point, sophomore Jane Sallen had already settled into a groove, retiring eight in a row, spanning the end of the first through the third innings.

“Jane is a year younger and has been great for us,” Bryant said.

Caruso scored in the third after a single by Jessica Combs to second to extend the lead to 7-0.

The Seawolves would then get two more in the bottom of the fourth, and after shutting out the Hawks in the top of the fifth, enforced the NCAA’s mercy rule, which is an eight run lead after the losing team has had five at-bats.

Sallen and Cukrov dominated the day, each controlling the strike zone and the Hawks’ bats, letting up one run and six hits combined, while striking out eight.

Kudernatschova, however, wasn’t so great in game two.

She had to get pulled after 1.2 innings after allowing six runs on only two hits, while walking five.

The big difference was only throwing 35.6 percent of her pitches for strikes, compared to a much more effective game one, throwing 69.6 percent in the zone.

Game three pitted Cukrov and Kudernatschova for the second time this weekend, but the game started completely different than the first time.

Cukrov battled Chelsey Mooney of Hartford in the top of the first and after Mooney battled for 11 pitches, she took the 12th and sent it over the right field fence to give the Hawks an early 2-0 lead.

Stony Brook would answer right back. Combs led off the inning and took the second pitch she saw deep to center.

Two batters later, after Mintun was hit by a pitch, Giosia drove a pitch deep to left over the wall to give the Seawolves a 3-2 lead.

Stony Brook would add another on a throwing error by second baseman Amber Andrews to take a 4-2 lead at the end of the first.

The Seawolves would add another in the bottom of the third, when Jessica Zeilman singled to center field, scoring Bria Green to extend the lead to 5-2.

Green also came up big defensively in the top of the fifth, shutting down any Hartford threat by diving full extension for an amazing catch on Andrews for the second out.

She then jumped into the fence to catch a Sawyer Fried fly ball, denying any chance at an extra base hit.

The Seawolves added more on in the bottom of the fifth, when Lauren Kamachi doubled to center field, scoring Green and Kellie Reynolds.

The next batter, Combs, grounded to the shortstop, which scored both Caruso and Schieferstein.

It also ended the inning when she got herself caught in a rundown.

Green then ended it with her second home run of the game, a shot to center that enforced the mercy rule yet again, as the Seawolves took the game and the sweep 11-2.

Cukrov, after letting up the home run, did not let up another hit in the game and finished with six strikeouts.

Cukrov finished the weekend 10-7 and leads the America East in strikeouts with 86.

The Seawolves are now in first in the America East conference at 7-1. They also improved to 8-1 at home. They also now have an overall record of 15-13.

Next up for Stony Brook is a pair of Tuesday road games at Columbia. Then, on Thursday SBU will return home to take on Hofstra.

The Seawolves next America East matchup will take place next Saturday at 1 p.m. when Stony Brook hits the road to begin a three-game set with UMass-Lowell.

The three-game sweep of Hartford came after the Seawolves fell 2-0 to Fairfield on Thursday afternoon. It was the fifth time SBU was shut out this season.