Baseball is a game of many chances. Many chances to hit the ball, many chances to score runs and many chances to win a game. Senior catcher Cole Peragine took advantage his second chance to win a game on Senior Day against the Hartford Hawks on Saturday, driving in freshman right fielder Andruw Gazzola to win the only game of the three-game series for Stony Brook 4-3 in the middle game of the set.
Hartford took the opening game 10-9, a game in which Peragine came inches from tying the game when his potential game-tying home run went off the top of the wall. The Hawks also took the closing game, 12-10.
When the Hawks scored a run in the top of the ninth of game one, the Seawolves need two runs in a matchup that they had previously trailed 6-1 and 9-3.
Sophomore shortstop Jeremy Giles singled to begin the bottom of the ninth, but that would be quickly erased when freshman third baseman Bobby Honeyman grounded into a double play and all hope looked to be lost for the home team.
Freshman designated hitter Malcolm Nachmanoff drew a walk, and manager Matt Senk sent Cole Creighton out to pinch run for Nachmanoff. Peragine then drove a 0-2 pitch to deep right field and it looked as if the game was ready for extra innings at a 10-all tie. The ball, however, was inches away from clearing the fence. Instead, it bounced off the yellow tubing that lines the top of the fence, went up into the air and back into the field of play, holding the senior to a triple.
Sophomore center fielder Toby Handley then grounded out to end the game in regulation.
Game two was a completely different story, as it was the only game that the pitchers seemed to have some sort of handle on. Sophomore hurler Daniel Zamora only allowed three runs, all of them earned, on five hits while striking out five Hawk batters.
The Seawolves had to be the comeback kids again, but this time they were successful. Down 4-1 entering the bottom of the sixth, Stony Brook used a sacrifice bunt by junior outfielder Jack Parenty and a sacrifice fly by senior second baseman Robert Chavarria to tie the middle game of the series at three.
It was then in the bottom of the seventh that Peragine drove in Gazzola, and the senior catcher had his fitting moment on Senior Day.
Hartford was the comeback team in game three, scoring a trio of runs in the top of the ninth to take the Seawolves’ last game at Joe Nathan Field for the 2015 season, 12-10.
The start of the Sunday afternoon finale was just as the Seawolves wanted, putting up at least two runs in the first four innings, while scoring three in the first, to take a 9-1 lead heading into the fifth in complete control.
Sophomore pitcher Ryley MacEachern had a good day, pitching six innings and allowing only two runs on seven hits while striking out seven Hartford batters.
It was the pitchers after the Saugus, Massachusetts native that drove Senk insane, causing his team to lose its first America East series since they lost two of three to UMass Lowell in mid-April last season.
Junior and freshman pitchers Nick Brass and Teddy Rodliff allowed a combined nine runs in the eighth and ninth innings, allowing the Hawks to come back from a 9-3 deficit to take home a 12-10 win.
The Seawolves played their last game at Joe Nathan Field this season, with a non-conference game at NYIT ahead of them for Tuesday and conference weekend series with the River Hawks of UMass Lowell and the Binghamton Bearcats before America East Tournament play begins.
