Seniors Shayla Giosia and Allison Cukrov led the Seawolves in a sweep of the UMBC Retrievers this weekend. The team won by scores of 4-0, 9-0 and 10-2 to close out the season with a 14-2 conference record.
“It was a great team effort this weekend with everything, pitching, hitting, defense. It was important for us to finish on a high note,” Head Coach Megan Bryant said of her team’s play.
Game one of the series was a Cukrov showcase. Over seven innings of work, she gave up just two hits and four walks, fanning four Retrievers. The win, her 11th of the season, was her sixth shutout this year.
The game was a scoreless tie until Giosia broke it up in the fifth with a sacrifice RBI to give the Seawolves a 1-0 lead.
Stony Brook did more damage in the sixth, scoring three more runs off the bats of a home run by Melissa Phelan, a double from Allie Pisciotta and a Chelsea Evans single.
Kelly Lane started in the circle for UMBC. She pitched 5.2 innings, giving up four runs on eight hits with three walks and two strikeouts. Nicole Casagrand came in for relief and closed out the game, allowing one hit and a walk in 0.2 innings.
Game two was yet another impressive pitching performance for Stony Brook. This time, Jane Sallen got the nod, and she did not disappoint. Through five innings, she only allowed four hits and struck out one batter, with no earned runs.
Giosia hit her 11th homer of the season in the bottom of the first inning to give the Seawolves a quick 2-0 lead. Phelan followed suit in the second as she hit a three-run blast, plating Lauren Kamachi and Kellie Reynolds.
Already up 5-0, Giosia smacked a double with two outs in the second to center field to send Pisciotta and Lexie Shue home.
The Seawolves sealed the deal in the third with some excellent small ball. Phelan knocked in another run with a sacrifice bunt, and Shue hit an RBI single to give Stony Brook a comfortable 9-0 lead.
Jessica Holte and Kim Puccio combined to throw four innings for UMBC, allowing nine runs on 12 hits with two strikeouts.
Giosia played her final regular season game as a Seawolf with dominance. She knocked in eight of the 10 runs scored, setting a Stony Brook single game record.
Cukrov pitched another gem, as well. Over six innings of work, the Retrievers managed just two runs on five hits, walking once and striking out four times.
For the second game in a row, Giosia hit a home run in the first inning. This time, it was a three-run shot that sent Evans and Pisciotta home. Pisciotta drove in a run herself in the second to pad the lead to four runs.
The Giosia show continued in the second inning when she hit a single to left to score two more runs, making the score 6-0. UMBC retaliated in the top of the third inning and scored one run, but that was all they could manage.
Shue hit a solo home run to lead off the bottom half of the third, increasing the SBU lead to six. Giosia hit her sixth RBI in the fourth inning, a single that scored Evans.
The Retrievers scored again in the fifth, but Giosia ended the game with her final two runs batted in in the sixth inning. She drove Evans and Pisciotta home on the play.
“Today was an all-around great performance by everyone,” Giosia said. “We had our pitching, we had our defense, we had our offense, and it really showed with the win.”
