The Maine Black Bears took an early 3-0 second inning lead, but Stony Brook responded with six runs in the bottom half on Saturday afternoon and went on for a 15-9 win at the America East Baseball Tournament at Joe Nathan Field in Stony Brook, New York. The game was a win or go home elimination contest, ending the Black Bears season.
Maine went to work in that top of the second on three straight doubles from Scout Knotts, and then RBI two baggers from Joe Bramanti and Jake Marquez to make it 2-0. They would tack on one more on an RBI groundout by Colin Plante. The hosts and top seed Stony Brook bounced back in a huge way in the bottom half. With one out and noone on base, Stanton Leunther and Evan Fox both singled, and a double steal got them to second and third. After a groundout for out number two, five straight hits gave the Seawolves the lead for good. A two-run single by Brett Paulsen and an RBI single by John Larocca tied it. Evan Giordano, Chris Hamilton, and John Tuccillo all hit RBI singles to cap off the big inning to make it 6-3. They put up three in the third, and four more in the fifth that made it 13-3 on a sacrifice fly by Giordano, an RBI single by Tuccillo, and a two-run single by Derek Yalon.
The Black Bears wouldn’t go down easy as they would put up a six spot in the top of the eighth. Five of the six came on three errors and went unearned, and the other run was on an RBI single by Connor Goodman to cut it to 13-9. Stony Brook padded the lead with a Paulsen RBI single and on a steal of home plate by Cole Durkan to finish off the scoring on the day in the bottom of the eighth.
Bramanti and Plante each had two hits for Maine, who ends their season at 22-22. Freshman pitcher Noah Lewis (4-6) out of Portland High School took the loss allowing six runs on seven hits in 2.0 innings. Jacob Small, Peter Kemble, and Tyler Neilsen also pitched in the final game of the season for the Black Bears. Paulsen had four hits and three RBI for Stony Brook, who improves to 31-18. Tuccillo had three hits and two RBI, Yalon two hits and two RBI, while Giordano and Hamilton also drove in two each. Brian Herrmann (4-3) got the pitching win allowing nine runs (three earned) on seven hits with nine strikeouts in 7.2 innings. He threw 135 pitches. The Seawolves move into the Championship Round against New Jersey Institute of Technology, as the Highlanders will have two chances to win one game to claim the title. The first game of a possible two did get underway on Saturday afternoon, but was suspended by rain and will resume Sunday with Stony Brook leading 1-0 in the bottom of the third inning.
BOX SCORE
UME (22-22) 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 6 0- 9 9 2
SBK (31-18) 0 6 0 3 4 0 0 2 x- 15 16 4
Winning pitcher- Brian Herrmann (4-3)
Losing pitcher- Noah Lewis (4-6)
Doubles- Maine- Knotts (1), Bramanti (1), Marquez (1), Plante (1)/Stony Brk- none
Stolen bases- Maine- Goodman (1)/Stony Brk- Luenther (2), Tuccillo (1), Fox (1), Durgan (1), Paulsen (1)
Errors- Maine-Turrene (1), Plante (1)/Stony BK-Paulsen (2), Larocca (1), Giordano (1)
Left on base- Maine 7, Stony Brook 9
Length of game- 2 hrs, 53 min
