Stony Brooks Sweeps Baseball Doubleheader with CSU

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Solid pitching performances led the way for Stony Brooks on Saturday as the Seawolves swept both games of a doubleheader against the CSU baseball team. Freshman outfielder Steve Antolik led the Buccaneer offense against Stony Brook, racking up four hits on the day. The Seawolves won game one, 6-4, and completed the sweep with a 5-3 victory in the nightcap.

Antolik went 4-for-7 in the doubleheader, hitting a pair of doubles to get an RBI and score twice to increase his batting average to .545 on the season with a .818 slugging percentage. Junior third baseman Mark Perry hit .556 in the two games and recorded his first RBI of the season.

Junior Brandon Roberts (0-2) started game one on the mound for CSU (1-5), dueling with Tom Koehler of the Seawolves. Roberts struck out five batters in the first three innings while Koehler fanned seven Buccaneers over the same span. Stony Brook (2-0) finally opened the scoring in the top of the fourth inning thanks to a two-run home run by Nick Thode.

CSU cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the fourth when freshman designated hitter Derek Smith belted a double through the left side of the infield that brought Antolik home from second. Thode pushed the margin back to two runs in the top of the fifth inning with an RBI single that scored Brian Witkowski.

The deficit was whittled down to once again in the bottom half of the fifth inning thanks to single by Antolik that scored junior catcher Jake Cox, who had advanced to third on a sacrifice fly by freshman Tyler Thornburg. That’s where the margin remained until a three-run outburst by the Seawolves in the top of the seventh blew open the contest. The Buccaneers rallied in the bottom of the ninth, capitalizing on a couple of Stony Brook errors to score a pair of runs, but it proved too little, too late.

Game two became another battle of wills between the starting pitchers as CSU’s junior lefty Andrew White (1-1) and the Seawolves’ Gary Novakowski held both side scoreless through three innings. Stony Brook opened the scoring once again, getting an RBI infield single from Steven Mazzurco in the top of the fourth inning.

The Buccaneers tied the game up in the bottom half of the inning, when another Smith double brought Antolik home to score. Both pitchers held the hitters in check as the game stayed knotted at 1-1 until the top of the seventh inning, when an outburst by the Stony Brook offense gave the visiting squad a four-run lead. Chad Rebecca brought two home for the Seawolves with a double and Robert Dyer drove in a pair with a single later in the inning to give Stony Brook a 5-1 advantage.

In the bottom of the seventh, junior shortstop Cory Trudell led things off with a double and advanced to third when Cox laid down a bunt that was mishandled by the Seawolves’ third baseman to give the home team runners on the corners. A fielder’s choice cut down Cox but allowed Trudell to score from third, making it a 5-2 ball game. An inning later, the Buccaneers pulled within two runs when Thornburg led off the bottom of the eighth with a solo home run over the left field fence. But the Stony Brook pitching staff shut down CSU from that point on to secure a sweep of the day’s games.

The two teams will wrap-up their three-game series on Sunday at 1 p.m. with a game at Collins Park in Charleston, S.C.

Box Score (Game One)

Box Score (Game Two)