ORONO- The Stony Brook Seawolves broke open a close game with four runs in the eighth inning on Saturday afternoon, and defeated the Maine Black Bears 6-2 at Mahaney Diamond in America East baseball action.
Stony Brook starting pitcher Brandon Lashley earned a win and shut down a Maine offense that had scored 47 runs in their first four conference games. Shane Paradine staked the Seawolves to a 1-0 lead with an RBI double in the first inning. That advantage would hold up all the way to the sixth inning, when the guests made it 2-0 on an RBI sacrifice fly from Evan Giordano. The Black Bears has a golden opportunity in the bottom half of the inning. Jeremiah Jenkins would put the hosts on the board with a one out solo homerun to right field. Quinn McDaniel then walked to end the day for Lashley. Joe Bramanti also walked, and Scout Knotts singled into right center to load the bases. Jake Rainess would step up and hit a sharp looping line drive to right that Stony Brook right fielder Derek Yalon made a great diving catch on to preserve the lead. Ryan Turenne grounded out to first to get the Seawolves out of the jam.
Stony Brook put it away in the eighth when Stanton Luenther was hit by a pitch to lead off, and Evan Fox followed with an RBI double down the left field line to make it 3-1. Giordano singled in Fox, and Matt Brown-Eir snuck one over the fence in right for a two-run homer to cap off the four run outburst.
Freshman left hander Caleb Leys (1-1) was able to escape several jams to keep Maine in the game but was tagged in the tough luck loss. Leys allowed one run on eight hits with three walks and three strikeouts in 5.0 innings. Rainess had three hits and Jordan Schulefand had two to lead the offense, with the RBI coming from Jeff Mejia and Jenkins on the afternoon. Lashley (1-1) had a final line of 5.1 innings pitched allowing one run on five hits with one walk and three strikeouts. Colton Book pitched the final 3.2 innings and picked up his first career save. Brown-Eiring and Fox had three hits a piece, as Stony Brook improves to 8-13, 4-1 in America East. Maine is now 7-12, 4-1. Neither team committed an error after they combined for five of them in the opener on Friday evening in a Black Bears win. The rubber game of the weekend is scheduled for Sunday at 12 p.m.
SBU 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 4 0- 6 13 0
UME 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1- 2 9 0
WP- Lashley (1-1) LP- Leys (1-1) SV- Book (1)
HR- Jenkins (2), Brown-Eiring (2)
3B- Schulefand
2B- Rainess, Paradine, Fox, Brown-Eiring
LOB- Stony Brook 14, Maine 9
