Junior Johnny Caputo extended his hitting streak to nine games with base hits in the 11th inning of game one and the second inning of game two, and the Seawolves used clutch pitching efforts to sweep a doubleheader from the Maine Black Bears in America East baseball action on Friday afternoon.
After Tyler Honahan allowed three runs in five innings in the first game, a stifling bullpen effort from Chad Lee, Ryley MacEachern and Teddy Rodliff held the Black Bears to only two runs over the final eight innings of the game in an 8-5 extra-inning victory.
After Maine came back to tie the game in the bottom of the 12th inning, Toby Handley roped a single to center, scoring Bobby Honeyman and giving the Seawolves a 6-5 lead. Insurance runs were added in the next at-bat courtesy of Jack Parenty, who sent a double to right, scoring Cole Peragine and Handley.
Handley finished the afternoon 6-for-11 in the two games, scoring three runs and driving in a pair of them himself.
Stony Brook took the lead in the 12th when Handley laced a triple to right and then scored on a fielder’s choice, but could not hold on, as a Brett Chappell-RBI double tied the game in the bottom half of the inning.
The Black Bears jumped out on Honahan 3-0 after three innings, and eventually chased him from the mound after the fifth inning. He allowed eight hits and only struck out four batters after striking out 13 in his last start against UMass Lowell.
The Seawolves fell behind twice by three runs at 3-0 and 4-1, but finally pulled even in the eighth after Caputo’s bases-loaded sacrifice bunt scored Handley from third.
Matt Senk’s resilient squad came from behind once again in the nightcap, this time only from one run down, to secure a 3-1 victory and the sweep.
After starter Kevin Kernan allowed an early first-inning run, he would not allow a Black Bear runner to reach past second base in his final three innings of work. He also only allowed two more hits the rest of the way.
Stony Brook got its three runs on base hits in the second, fourth and seventh inning. Robert Chavarria scored two of those on singles in the second and fourth by Caputo and Malcolm Nachmanoff, respectively.
Handley scored Peragine with an RBI triple to add to the already sufficient offensive support for Kernan and closer Cameron Stone.
Stone came on in the fifth and recorded the final nine outs of the game, eight of which came via strikeout in his first appearance since March 17, as he continues to recover from injury. He is sure making it look like he did not lose too much of his America East Rookie of the Year form from last year.
The pitching has been helped by outstanding defense, as the Seawolves rank 34th in the country with a 0.975 fielding percentage, nine points behind national leader San Diego.
Stony Brook will be back in action tomorrow afternoon when they travel to New Rochelle, New York to take on Iona. Then on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m., SBU will host Manhattan.
