Winning weekend vs. NU sparked Stony Brook

ORONO – Earlier this season, it appeared as though the only decisions members of the Stony Brook (N.Y.) baseball team would be making on Memorial Day weekend would be what to bring to the family barbecue.

The Seawolves lost five of their first six America East games and were heading to Brookline, Mass., to face defending league tournament champion Northeastern University.

“Coach [Matt Senk] gave us a speech at Northeastern,” recalled sophomore lefthander Matt Restivo after he four-hit Maine 3-1 Saturday to lead Stony Brook to the America East championship and its first trip to the NCAA Tournament.

“He told us to stick together and not to upset our fans, our teammates or ourselves. After that, we were set. We got the job done,” said Restivo.

Stony Brook took two of three from Northeastern and finished 11-10 in league play to earn the fourth seed.

“We all started swinging the bats, we picked each other up and the big thing is we believed in each other,” said senior right fielder Kevin Solano.

“People thought we were done. Some of us thought we were done. But we got through it and here we are. This is the best feeling ever,” said junior center fielder Andrew Larsen, who hit the first pitch of the tournament over the fence off America East Pitcher of the Year Jordan Thomson from Northeastern to set the tone for their title.

“He [Thomson] was 7-0 against us with an earned run average under 1.00. It was about time we broke through,” said Larsen. “Then we just kept rolling. Hitting is contagious.”

Maine junior second baseman Mike Ferriggi termed Stony Brook’s turnaround “unbelievable.

“You’ve got to give them all the credit in the world. I’m from Long Island myself and I know the way they go about playing the game. I respect them as competitors,” said Ferriggi, a native of Bellmore, N.Y.

“We started off real slow and then we just clicked. We became a team,” said sophomore left fielder Isidro Fortuna, who was chosen the tourney Most Valuable Player after going 7-for-13 (.538) with four runs scored and two RBIs.

“The whole team is the MVP. That’s how it is,” said the humble Fortuna, who added he had “never won a championship before.”

The Seawolves hit .339 in the tourney and outscored their opponents 24-10. They made only two errors and had a 3.33 earned run average.

Jon Lewis threw a seven-hitter in their 6-3 winners’ bracket triumph over Maine Friday before Restivo threw his gem on Saturday.

“Those are two of the best performances we’ve seen this season,” said Ferriggi. “They know how to shut us down. They didn’t give us any extra outs, which was very important.”

The 45-year-old Senk said the championship “hasn’t sunk in yet.

“This is one of the best things to ever happen to me in my athletic career,” said Senk, who is in his 14th season at Stony Brook.

Senk and his players said getting to the championship game last year – they lost to Northeastern in the final 11-0 – was beneficial.

“You could say we definitely had the experience factor from being in a championship game in our favor,” said senior catcher Cole Cicatelli. “But last year, we came out of the other side of the bracket. This year we came out of the winners’ bracket.”