Stony Brook Baseball’s pitching had a bad nine innings in the middle game of the team’s series against Hartford this weekend, but the team dominated the rest of the way as the Seawolves moved to 5-2 in America East play with two out of three victories.
Though inconsistent, the good pitching outweighed the bad for the Seawolves, starting with a strong game from senior starting pitcher Chad Lee in Friday’s 9-0 victory.
Lee pitched six scoreless innings against Maine last weekend. This time, he allowed no runs in eight innings while striking out five. The quality performance earned him his fourth win of the season.
“You can make a very strong argument that Chad has been our best pitcher all year,” Stony Brook head coach Matt Senk said after Lee’s win against Maine.
Lee has not allowed an earned run in any of his three starts this season since transitioning from the bullpen. His 1.16 earned run average now sits second overall in the America East Conference among qualifying pitchers.
At the same time, the Seawolves’ offense made itself at home at the plate.
Senior second baseman Jack Parenty continued to swing a hot bat, sending his first home run of the season over the right field wall in the seventh inning to score two runs. He finished with four runs batted in on Friday and had seven total hits throughout the weekend series.
Senior starting pitcher Tyler Honahan did not fare as well as Lee in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader. He was responsible for Hartford’s five-run first inning. But Honahan did settle down and hold the Hawks scoreless through the next four innings. His earned run average rose to 7.26 after the tough start from the senior.
Honahan is leading the team in both walks and batters hit by pitch.
Hartford would score four more runs in the sixth inning to finalize a 9-5 victory over Stony Brook.
Freshman starting pitcher Bret Clarke led Stony Brook’s second shutout of the weekend in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, a bounceback victory. Clarke threw 4.1 scoreless innings while allowing five hits and striking out one before handing it off to his bullpen to complete the Seawolves’ 2-0 shutout and earn Clarke his fourth win of the season.
The game was tied 0-0 with two outs in the top of the fourth inning when sophomore left fielder Andruw Gazzola stole second base to get into scoring position. Junior right fielder Casey Baker singled to right field to put Stony Brook up 1-0. Baker scored the only other run in the sixth inning.
Stony Brook will continue its road trip Wednesday when the team will head to LIU Field to take on the LIU-Brooklyn Blackbirds at 3 p.m..
