In an unpredictable America East baseball tournament, Stony Brook took the America East championship after beating Albany Friday afternoon, 4-2. This game marked only the third time in America East baseball history that neither one of the top two seeds were involved in the title game; heading into the tournament, the Seawolves had been ranked third, the Great Danes fourth.
The Seawolves, seeded third going into the tournament, were led by the performance of outfielder Pat Cantwell. The sophomore hit the winning two-run homer with only one out in the seventh inning.
Immediately following Cantwell’s home-run, junior infielder Chad Marshall hit another homer to make the score 3-1.
Albany and Stony Brook had traded runs in back-to-back innings – in the bottom of the second, Stony Brook scored Michael Stephan after two walks. At the top of the third, Albany’s Brendan Rowland hit a sacrifice fly to score Nolan Gaige.
Freshmen starter Adam Brown pitched over eight innings for the Seawolves, and was relieved by William Carmona, who kept Albany at bay.
Cantwell was named Tournament MVP, and the team placed four other players on the All-Tournament Team (Carmona, Brown, second baseman Maxx Tissenbaum, and starting pitcher Nick Tropeano.) Stony Brook now awaits its matchup for its second NCAA appearance in three years.
Kat Hasenauer Cornetta is a freelance writer and a contributor to The College Baseball Blog. She covers college hockey, professional lacrosse and other sports. You can find links to her work on her blog.
