Long Island, NY - The Iona College Baseball program fell on the road to Stony Brook on Wednesday afternoon by a final score of 9-1, at Joe Nathan Field. The 3rd and 8th inning became the difference in the ball game with Stony Brook scoring four runs in the 3rd and five more runs in the 8th to turn the tide.

The Gaels lone run of the afternoon came in the 8th inning off the bat of junior Nick Forney who ripped an RBI double to deep right field.

GAME SUMMARY

Making his second start of the season, grad-student Vicente Mendoza managed to work around some trouble in the first two innings to keep Stony Brook off the board. In the first inning, Mendoza got some help from his defense on a strike him out throw him out, with freshman catcher Anthony Febo making the throw down to third. 

After Febo threw out his second runner of the afternoon in the third inning, Stony Brook put together a two-out rally taking advantage of four consecutive walks with the bases-loaded to take a 4-0 lead. 

Iona's bullpen settled in with junior Thomas O'Sullivan, freshman Nick Chiaia, and senior Michael Untracht all tossing scoreless outings in relief to keep the score at 4-0 through seven innings of play.

Trailing 4-0 entering the 8th inning, the Gaels put together a rally that started with senior Nick Carnevale reaching base on an error. Senior Luca Lotito followed up with a single down the right field line setting up Forney's RBI double, cutting the deficit to 4-1. Unfortunately the Gaels rally stalled with Stony Brook's pitcher Quinlan Montgomery picking up two consecutive strikeouts to escape the jam.

Stony Brook added some insurance in the bottom half of the inning, driving in five more runs as the Seawolves took the mid-week matchup by a final score of 9-1.

NOTABLE NUGGETS

• Making the start out in left field, sophomore Jaz Burton recorded his first hit of his career with a double to left in the fourth inning.
• With his single in the 8th inning,  Lotito pushed his hitting streak to seven straight games, starting back against Tennessee. Lotito leads the Gaels with 12 hits and his BA of .316 is also leading the team.
• Senior Jake Field added two more hits this afternoon, pushing his season hits total to 11. (Second on team)
• Senior Will Jennings, Forney and Carnevale are all currently on a three-game hitting streak that started in game one of the doubleheader against Delaware. 
• For the second straight game batting leadoff, Carnevale recorded  a multi-hit day. 

UP NEXT

The Gaels return to action on Friday when they begin a three-game road series against NEC foe LIU. Game 1 of the series is set to begin Friday afternoon at 3:00 PM streaming on NEC FrontRow.

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