The Stony Brook softball team hosted Brown University and Holy Cross University this past weekend in the Stony Brook Invitational.
Game 1: Brown 6, Stony Brook 0
The first game was a pitchers duel. Freshman Melissa Rahrich and junior Katie Orona battled through the first four innings of the game, each giving up one hit until that point.
Both teams had difficulty getting base hits through those four innings. A majority of the outs came from simple groundouts. Rahrich racked up seven strikeouts for the day.
In the fifth inning, after Stony Brook head coach Megan T. Bryant disputed a questionable safe call at first base, Brown freshman shortstop Kaitlin Okimoto hit a two-run home run to center field on the very next pitch to put the Bears up 2-0.
Brown would put up four more runs in the seventh inning while Stony Brook was only able to muster one more hit, ultimately dropping the first game 6-0.
“I thought Mel threw a great game,” Bryant said. “We didn’t make the changes we needed to offensively. We kept doing the same things over and over again, and that was disappointing.”
Game 2: Stony Brook 9, Holy Cross 0
After only getting two hits in their first game, the Seawolves’ bats erupted, cranking out 11 hits through five innings of work. The team was also very successful scoring runs as well, as they were only shut out in the fourth inning on their way to a 9-0 shutout.
Freshman outfielder Jourdin Hering had the best game of her Stony Brook career, going 2-3, with two home runs, a two run home run in the second and a three run home run in third inning. Both of those home runs were to center field.
“I wasn’t having the best day of my career,” Hering said about her home runs. “I said to myself, ‘I got to get something going,’ and to me, I just had to get on base for the team.”
Junior catcher Irene Rivera, Rahrich, and junior second baseman Chelsea Evans each brought in a run themselves, and the team was able to finish the game via mercy, winning 9-0.
“It all started with Irene’s [Rivera] double off the fence,” Hering said about the difference in their second game. “When somebody gets a big hit like that, it kind of gets everyone, so that really helped us out a lot.”
Game 3: Brown 4, Stony Brook 2
Brown junior Grayson Metzger was the player of the game Sunday morning, as she knocked in three of the four Bears runs of the game via a single in the second and a double in the fourth.
But the Seawolves would not go away quietly. Both freshman third baseman Allyssa Malony and Hering homered in the sixth inning, cutting Brown’s lead to two.
Senior pitcher Alex Petrolia and junior pitcher Maddy Neales each gave up two runs in one and two-thirds inning respectfully. Sophomore pitcher Lindsey Hughes pitched a clean three and two-thirds innings in relief.
Game 4: Stony Brook 11, Holy Cross 2
As was the case in the second game of the invitational, Stony Brook was able to get hot early and often when playing Holy Cross. The team racked up 13 hits on the day, and scored 11 runs.
The fifth and seventh innings were the key offensive innings for the Seawolves, where they scored five and four runs respectfully. Evans, Rahrich and Malony drove home the five runs in the fifth. In the seventh, a steal home from Hughes, a Crusaders error and a home run from Malony sealed the deal for Stony Brook.
Rahrich pitched four innings and only gave up two runs, while Hughes pitched three shutout relief innings. Rivera also had a two-run home run in the first inning to start the Seawolves on a high note.
The Seawolves will be taking on the Monmouth Hawks in a doubleheader on March 27 at 2 p.m..
