The Stony Brook softball team won two of its first three America East games this weekend against the Binghamton Bearcats. The Seawolves took the first two games by scores of 15-0 and 3-0, but fell to the Bearcats 13-7 in the series finale.
SBU got an early start in the opening contest, plating five runners on just one hit and three Binghamton errors in the bottom of the first inning. Diane Caruso drove in two of the five runs.
The scoring continued in the bottom of the third inning when Lexie Shue hit a two-run home run to increase the gap to 7-0.
The rest of the damage came in the fourth inning. Caruso hit her fourth homer of the season, a three-run shot to left-center field. Three batters later, Patty Borges smacked a two-run single to right, advancing to second on the play. This brought the score to 12-0.
But Stony Brook was not done. Senior outfielder Shayla Giosia hit a two-out three-run home run, the second of the inning. The 15-0 deficit was the nail in the coffin for the opener of the Saturday doubleheader.
Jane Sallen started game one in the circle for SBU. The junior pitched masterfully, giving up only three hits in five innings of work. This was her seventh win and her third shutout of the season.
The Bearcats’ offense was shut down in the second game of the series as the Seawolves put together a 3-0 victory. Stony Brook scored early as Chelsea Evans drew a bases-loaded walk from Binghamton pitcher Sarah Miller in the first inning, giving the Seawolves a 1-0 lead.
The score would stagnate at 1-0 until the bottom of the fifth, when home run machine Bria Green hit her conference-leading 10th homer of the season, a two-run line drive to left field.
“This was a big opening weekend for us in the America East, and it’s really important for our goals that we make the most of our opportunities, and I thought we did that today,” Head Coach Megan Bryant said of her team’s performance.
Senior Allison Cukrov got the nod for game two, striking out a season-high 10 batters, walking four and giving up five hits in seven dominant innings. She escaped from two bases-loaded, one-out jams without giving up a single run in the fourth and sixth innings.
“I trusted that they would field the ball behind me and everything, so just to kind of put the ball in play and let my defense take care of it,” Cukrov said of her strategy with the bases loaded.
The Bearcat offense came to life in game three of the series as the Seawolves were defeated 13-7.
Down 4-0 after a Green three-run homer and a Giosia-RBI single, Binghamton’s Sydney Harbaugh and Taylor Chaffee each hit two-run homers to tie the game in the third.
The Seawolves quickly answered with another run in the bottom of the inning to take a 5-4 lead.
The onslaught continued in the fourth and fifth innings, as Binghamton scored five and three runs, respectively. Stony Brook answered with two runs in the bottom of the fifth, but after six innings, they were down 13-7.
Sallen started the game but was replaced by Cukrov in the third inning. Sallen returned to the game after Cukrov put in 1.2 innings of work. The pitchers combined for seven innings pitched, 13 runs, 18 hits, six walks and three strikeouts.
The Bearcats used a combination of Shelby Donhauser and Sarah Miller in the circle. They allowed seven runs on six hits with six walks and four strikeouts.
The Seawolves will travel to Fairfield, Connecticut to take on Sacred Heart this Tuesday in a doubleheader. The games start at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m..
