Stony Brook baseball used great starting pitching performances from Tyler Honahan and Daniel Zamora to take two games of a three-game set with the UMass Lowell River Hawks on Sunday and Monday afternoons.
Honahan paced the Seawolves with an ace-like performance in game one that manager Matt Senk has come to expect from the junior, as the lefty went 6.1 innings, allowing only one run and four hits while striking out 13 River Hawk batters in a 10-1 victory.
He had plenty of help on the offensive end, as six different Stony Brook bats drove in a run, with Robert Chavarria bringing in a pair.
The Seawolves persistently put runs on the board, scoring in all but two innings. Senk’s squad put up a pair in the second, fourth, seventh and eighth innings and added a single run in the third and fifth to reach double digits for the second time this season.
It was the first time the Seawolves put up 10 or more since they played Iona on March 17.
In game two, the River Hawks were able to present some offense to help out their pitching staff, putting together a 6-3 victory in the first of a pair of games Monday afternoon.
Seawolves starter Ryley MacEachern struggled on the hill, only lasting 3.1 innings and giving up four runs on six hits.
A big fourth inning propelled UMass Lowell, who took two of three from Stony Brook in Lowell, Massachusetts last season. An Ian Strom single and Jimmy Ricoy double in the inning put the River Hawks up 3-0, with Ricoy scoring on an ensuing wild pitch to extend the margin to four nothing.
Plating another run in the fifth and sixth innings, UMass Lowell had a six-run advantage before Stony Brook made its comeback in the eighth. Toby Handley plated a run with a single, and then Jack Parenty tripled to cut the lead in half at 6-3, but would not be able to crawl any closer.
The rubber match was a pitcher’s duel, pitting Stony Brook’s Zamora against UMass Lowell’s Geoff DeGroot. Zamora lasted all seven innings of the matchup, striking out nine River Hawk batters and only allowing a lone run on a Joe Consolmagno RBI double.
Zamora would not get the win in the matchup, but the Seawolves would with late-game heroics. With runners on second and third and one out, Handley grounded out for the second out. DeGroot and the River Hawk coaching staff chose not to pitch to Parenty, sending second baseman Chavarria to the plate.
Down to his last strike, he laced a single up the middle, scoring Billy McLean from third and Cole Peragine sprinting home from second for the game- and series-winning run.
Stony Brook climbed to 10-11 on the season, and have a busy week ahead on the road. The Seawolves will head to Poughkeepsie, New York on Tuesday afternoon for a one-game stint with the Marist Red Foxes before taking their longest road trip left on the year up to Orono, Maine for a three-game set with the Maine Black Bears on Friday and Saturday.
