Baseball Falls To Albany In Opening Round of America East Tournament, 8-1
Endicott, N.Y. - Senior Brian Witkowski (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) went 2-for-4 with a run scored and senior Steven Mazzurco (Selden, N.Y.) added two hits but it wasn't enough as the No. 2 Albany Great Danes used a four-run sixth to defeat the No. 3 Stony Brook University baseball team, 8-1, in the opening round of the 2009 America East Tournament this afternoon at Pete Sylvester Field. Stony Brook will now play the loser of tonight's game between No. 1 Binghamton and No. 4 Vermont in an elimination game on Friday at 4 p.m. Fans can listen to the game locally on WUSB 90.1 FM or goseawolves.org.
SBU (29-22) grabbed the early lead in the third as Witkowski doubled to center with two outs. Sophomore Chad Marshall (Paris, Ontario) then grounded the ball to shortstop Sean Donovan, who fielded the ball cleanly but threw wide of first. The errant throw allowed Witkowski to come around with the game's first run.
But Albany (25-29-1) rallied in the sixth, striking for four runs. Donovan tripled down the right field line to lead off the inning and came home on a sacrifice fly from Gary Pitcheralle. Brendan Rowland then doubled to left and Ryan Gugel followed with a run-scoring single up the middle to put the Great Danes up 2-1.
The final two runs of the inning scored on a Pete Eichner run-scoring double and a Kyle Crean RBI groundout. The Great Danes tacked on a run in the seventh as Jim Banks doubled to left to lead off and then scored on a Seawolves error.
Albany added three runs in eighth on a Banks RBI single and a Donovan two-run double. The Seawolves loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth but Albany closer Sean Gregory struck out Witkowski to end the game. Dave West led the Great Danes with three hits, while Donovan tallied three hits and two RBI.
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Senior Mike Errigo (Bayside, N.Y.) took the loss for the Seawolves, allowing four runs on eight hits in 5.1 innings. The runs allowed by Errigo in the sixth snapped his scoreless streak of 19.2 innings in America East tournament play.
Kubiak picked up the win for Albany, giving up just an unearned run on six hits in his 8.0 innings of work.
