Two shorthanded teams squared off this afternoon in Smithtown. Stony Brook arrived with exactly nine players, and Smithtown Christian lost two starters to injuries during warm ups.
Stony Brook starter Joe Wozny opened up the scoring in the top of the first with a two-run double to left. A single by clean-up hitter Ben Tutuska added one more, and a misplayed grounder turned it into a 4-0 game.
Wozny took to the mound in the next inning and gave up two runs, one on a single to Giuseppe Crilly, and another on a fielders choice with the bases loaded. However, the hard-throwing freshman settled down and pitched an threw three no-hit innings after the difficult first, striking out nine batters before sliding over to third base in the fifth.
After the game he said, “In the first inning I had a little trouble with the fastball. It didn’t have the life that it usually does, they were hitting a little bit, I probably should have thrown a couple of breaking balls or change ups at certain points. But after that I was able to throw some good sequences.”
Wozny continued to help is own cause adding another RBI on a single in the second. Stony Brook continued to build their lead in the fourth scoring three more runs on a pair of bases-loaded walks and one bases-loaded hit by pitch.
A fifth inning single by Tutuska gave him his second of three RBIs and gave Stony Brook a 10-2 lead, and a four run sixth stretched the lead to a dozen runs. With two outs in the sixth lead-off hitter Seamus Sennlon drove in one on his second hit of the game. Catcher Aiden Mega and Tutuska added another run each with doubles, and an error on a grounder by Wozny gave Stony Brook their fourteenth and final run.
Second baseman Dan Rueda took over for Wozny in the fifth and pitched the game’s final three innings. He didn’t allow a hit in his first two innings, but Smithtown refused to go quietly in the bottom of the seventh.
With two outs and two on a pop up from Luch Pagliarulo dropped between the charging center fielder and backpedaling infielders scoring both runners. Pagliarulo would score on an infield single by Mike Pennachio after he advanced to third on a misplayed grounder by Crilly. And Crilly and Pennachio would both come around to score when Tyler Lewis absolutely crushed a triple to left. Lewis entered the game as a reliever in the sixth, and ended the there on third base as Rueda got out of the inning with clutch strikeout.
After the game Stony Brook’s coach, Dustin Monez said those early runs really helped his team, “Our last game we played these guys we kind of had to fight back, we ended up walking off. But this game we wanted to get ahead and we knew that we could.”
These two teams are scheduled to square off again tomorrow afternoon at Stony Brook.
