The Seawolves baseball team took its talents to Florida this weekend for a three-game series with the No. 2 team in the nation, the Florida Gators. The team could not come away with a win against the Gators in its final trip close to the Gulf of Mexico this season.
In game one, it was a good, old-fashioned pitchers duel as Seawolves starter Tim Knesnik threw toe-to-toe with the reigning SEC Freshman of the Year Logan Shore.
Despite drawing three walks, a career high for the sophomore, the Seawolves were only able to muster one hit in 6.1 innings that Shore was on the mound, not giving Knesnik the run support he deserved in a 1-0 Gators win.
The junior threw five-plus innings, allowing only the one run on five hits.
The lone run was scored by Florida in the bottom of the sixth, when JJ Schwarz drove a double down the left-field line, scoring Harrison Bader from first.
Bobby Poyner went 2.2 innings for the save, allowing a miniscule two hits.
Game two was a completely different story, as the bats came alive for one side at least. Johnny Caputo started the scoring with the third home run of his career, a three-run blast to give the Seawolves the early 3-0 lead.
After that, it was all Gators, as they scored 14 unanswered runs in a final that looked more like a football score than a baseball margin, finishing 14-3.
The Gators plated five runs in their half of the first to immediately take the lead, and then scored at least one in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings to keep their distance from Stony Brook.
Seawolves ace Tyler Honahan had his worst outing of the season by far, as he was chased from the mound after allowing four runs on six hits in just 2.2 innings.
The sweep was finished on Sunday afternoon, as Florida took the matinee matchup 6-2.
The Gators scored a pair of runs in the second inning and did not look back, adding tallies in the third, fifth, seventh and eighth innings.
Florida used two long balls in order to get on the board, and held on from there.
The Seawolves scored their runs in the eighth and ninth, but it was too little, too late. Jeremy Giles laced a double down the left-field line to put Stony Brook on the board. Then, Malcolm Nachmanoff got his second hit of the afternoon with a base knock to left, scoring Caputo from third.
Baseball will finally come to Joe Nathan Field on Tuesday, when Stony Brook plays NYIT.
