And the Seawolves have done their best to prove Guttin right.
Stony Brook won two games Sunday, coming back from a five-run deficit to defeat Missouri State, 10-7, in the afternoon before beating Central Florida, 12-5, in the night game. That set up one final game between SBU (49-12) and Central Florida (45-16) Monday night at 7 to determine the Coral Gables Regional title.
SBU scored seven runs in the seventh to beat Missouri State, with Kevin Courtney's three-run double snapping a 7-7 tie. He had two doubles in the seventh, both on 0-and-2 pitches. It was the second time in two games that SBU erased a five-run deficit.
Travis Jankowski had three of Stony Brook's 15 hits against UCF. He also had three of SBU's 10 hits against Missouri State.
Jankowski had two hits and five RBIs Saturday night as Stony Brook lost to UCF, 9-8, to fall into the losers' bracket.
Reliever Frankie Vanderka gave up two runs in 62/3 innings against Missouri State. "That was an unbelievable performance,'' Senk said. "It was a tremendous job by our team, too. We just kept fighting back."
The loss eliminated the third-seeded Bears (40-22), leaving one of their players, Brock Chaffin, in tears at an emotional postgame news conference.
The Seawolves were 1-6 in three previous regional appearances, but with one more win, they'll join Missouri (2006) and Fresno State (2008) as the only No. 4 seeds to win an NCAA baseball regional since the field was expanded to 64 in 2001. SBU is the first America East team to reach a regional final.
Against Missouri State, Courtney started the big seventh with a double to right and Jankowski singled to put runners at the corners. Pat Cantwell and Willie Carmona followed with RBI singles, Maxx Tissenbaum's bunt drove in another run and Steven Goldstein tied the score at 7-7 with a bases-loaded walk.
That set up Courtney, a lefty hitter who bats last in the order and has the lowest batting average (.291) among the starters. He went the other way and sent the ball flying over the head of leftfielder Keenen Maddox.
Missouri State threatened in the ninth. Derek Mattea singled, and after James Campbell relieved Vanderka, Kevin Medrano singled and Brent Seifert walked with one out to load the bases. But Campbell struck out Maddox and Luke Voit on outside fastballs, each at 93 mph.
