The Stony Brook baseball team wrapped up its road trip with a single game against the Iona Gaels on Tuesday, earning a 6-0 victory on late offense and a dominant pitching performance. Five Stony Brook pitchers combined to throw a one-hit shutout, including five and two-thirds no-hit innings from the bullpen.
The Seawolves’ offense was dormant for most of the first half. Senior infielder Bobby Honeyman got to third base on a one-out triple in the first inning but was stranded on back-to-back strikeouts. The Seawolves failed to put a runner on third in the next three innings, but the bats finally got going in the fifth.
Freshman catcher John Tuccillo was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, then took second base on a failed pickoff attempt by the Gaels’ freshman pitcher James Gosweiler. Tuccillo advanced to third on a fly out and sophomore infielder Nick Grande scored him two batters later on a single to the shortstop. Honeyman followed up with a double to right-center, scoring Grande and junior infielder Brandon Janofsky to make it 3-0.
Stony Brook doubled their lead in the eighth inning when Grande led off with a walk. Grande stole second, earning his 22nd stolen base of the season and tying him for third on the school’s single season records. Grande scored in the next at-bat on a throwing error by Gosweiler. Junior outfielder Dylan Resk got aboard on the error and advanced to third on junior pitcher Michael Russell’s single. Senior outfielder Andruw Gazzola singled to right-center two batters later, scoring Resk. A wild pitch brought home the final run to make it 6-0.
The Seawolves pitching gave the offense plenty of time to find their groove. Sophomore starting pitcher Sam Turcotte was locked in from the start, retiring the first 12 batters he faced and recording four strikeouts. The Gaels’ senior infielder Sean Scales drove the only mistake Turcotte offered out to left field for a double to lead off the fourth, the lone hit for the home team. Turcotte recorded one more out before handing the ball over to senior pitcher Kevin Kernan.
Kernan worked out of the jam in the fourth and tossed two clean innings before handing the torch to freshman pitcher Brian Morrisey. He induced three straight ground balls in his one inning of work and gave the ball to freshman pitcher Connor Clark. Clark got into the only other jam of the afternoon, walking two batters with one out, but rebounded with back-to-back strikeouts to preserve the shutout. Senior pitcher Nick Montefusco retired the side in the ninth to close out the victory in a non-save situation.
Stony Brook improves to 20-15, earning its 20th victory nearly two weeks ahead of last year’s pace. The team returns home for a conference series against the University of Maryland, Baltimore County over the weekend from April 21 to April 22. Stony Brook currently sits in third place in the conference, a game and a half ahead of UMBC.
