Softball Has Record Setting Day Against Albany
Stony Brook, N.Y. - Stony Brook University's softball team secured the top seed for the 2009 America East Championship with a split against Albany on Saturday afternoon. The Seawolves won game one, 5-0, before dropping the second tilt, 2-0. Stony Brook now has 34 overall wins on the season, breaking the previous school record which they set last year. With a 14-5 record in the America East, the Seawolves also clinched at least a tie of the regular season conference title, a first in program history. SBU also secured itself at least two more home games, as it will now host the America East Championships which begin on Thursday.
Stony Brook's offense flexed its muscles against one of the top pitchers in the America East, hitting three home runs in game one off Albany's Leah McIntosh. Senior Kelly Oberto (Spring Lake Heights, N.J.) hit a pair of two-run homers and junior Vicki Kavitsky (Cherry Hill, N.J.) hit a solo-shot.
In both the second and fourth innings senior Marissa Fleury (Mahopac, N.Y.) led things off for the Seawolves with singles, the second of which was Fleury's 200th career hit. Oberto would follow both of those at-bats with home runs. The first was to center field and the second to left.
Kavitsky knocked her home run over the center field fence with one out in the third. Her home run was Stony Brook's 215th RBI of the season, breaking the previous school record which was set in 2006. In scoring her 43rd run of the season, Kavitsky tied Kristen Brust '05 for the second-most runs scored in a single season.
Junior Alyssa Struzenberg (Cooper City, Fla.) allowed only three hits, but had to battle for the complete-game win as Albany put runners on base in every inning but one. Albany's best scoring opportunity came in the fifth inning when Meagan Butsch tried to score from second on a single, but sophomore right fielder Brijette Martin (New York, N.Y.) cut her down at the plate for the third out of the inning. Struzenberg struck out eight while picking up her 20th win of the season.
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Stony Brook record two more hits than the Great Danes did in game two, but a two-run home run in the third was all Albany would need as it held on for the 2-0 win. A controversial call in the top of the sixth inning, in which Kavitsky was called out for leaving the base early while attempting to tag-up on a fly ball, ended the Seawolves best chance of scoring.
SBU and Albany will finish its three-game series on Sunday. With a win or a loss by Boston University to Binghamton the Seawolves will clinch the regular season title, but if Stony Brook loses and Boston wins the two teams will share the title.
