GREENSBORO – The Stony Brook University (SBU) offense never got to a point over the weekend where it cooled off. That includes Sunday when the Seawolves took the series win over the North Carolina A&T baseball team with a 12-6 win at War Memorial Stadium.
In winning the three-game series, the Seawolves scored 38 runs on 39 hits, including 10 extra-base hits and four home runs, as they improved to 14-15 overall and 3-6 in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA). The Aggies did not have a bad weekend offensively, scoring 21 runs on 30 hits. They also had five extra-base hits, including four home runs.
What hurt the Aggies on the final two days of the series were the big leads SBU built throughout the ballgames. On Saturday, the Seawolves grabbed a 9-0 lead after three innings played. Sunday played out differently. The first five innings took a little more than an hour to play, with the difference in the ballgame two solo home runs hit by the Seawolves in the second inning.
A&T right-handed starter Gavin Sentell (L, 1-5) had an effective five-inning outing. He gave up the two home runs on four hits, walked one, and struck out two. Sentell's counterpart, RHP John Rizzo (W, 3-1) pitched seven innings, surrendering one run on three hits while walking two Aggies and striking out seven.
Sunday's game did not grind to a halt until the visitor's sixth inning when the Seawolves posted six runs on three hits and scored one of those runs on an error. Senior RHP Diego Barrett had an unfortunate start to his outing. After walking Nico Azpilcueta, a throwing error allowed Azpilcueta to score and Chanz Doughty to reach third, giving the Seawolves a 3-0 lead.
After Barrett walked Johnny Pilla, the Aggies turned to junior RHP Sean Duke. Duke walked Luke Szepek to load the bases for Chris Carson, who drove in a run on an RBI sacrifice fly. An RBI bunt single from Nick Zampieron allowed another run to score before Matt Miceli hit an RBI single to right to give the Seawolves a 6-0 advantage.
Senior RHP Jacob Halford entered the game for the Aggies, and Evan Goforth delivered the biggest blow with a two-run RBI single to put A&T behind 8-0.
A&T got one of those runs back on a solo home run from freshman JT Taylor. Taylor had a solid series for the Aggies, going 6-for-13 with the homer, four runs scored, two doubles, and six RBIs. Taylor had a 3-for-5 afternoon on Sunday, which included three RBIs and two runs scored. Taylor now has four home runs this season.
RHP Curtis Daniels pitched effectively for the Aggies over the seventh and eighth innings, but the ninth inning put the Aggies in an even bigger deficit. SBU scored four runs during the frame, which was led by Szepek's two-run double to give the Seawolves a 12-1 lead.
The Aggies put together an impressive ninth inning. It started with a one-out double from junior Andrew Tinsley off RHP Matthew Canizares. Canizares hit the next two Aggies with pitches to load the bases. He then forced in a run by walking freshman Bruce Wyche. After earning a strikeout, Canizares gave up a two-run RBI double to Taylor, cutting the SBU lead to 12-4.
RHP Alen Jankowski replaced Canizares and gave up a two-run single to senior Kristian Amaro to bring the Aggies to within six. But Jankowski got freshman Savoi Edwards to fly out, ending the game.
The Aggies will return to action on Tuesday, April 8 when they face the Davidison Wildcats at the War starting at 6 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. North Carolina A&T will throw out the ceremonial first pitch.
