Box score
SOUTH ORANGE, NJ—Stony Brook freshman RHP Frankie Vanderka was the story Friday afternoon, tossing a complete-game, nine-inning, 13-strikeout no-hitter in a 14-1 win over NJIT on the first day of the third annual Rawlings Strike Out Cancer baseball Tournament hosted by Seton Hall.
Vanderka (2-0) came into the game with an impressive 1.08 earned run average in 8.1 innings work in three previous outings, but he topped that with his work in his second college start. Against the Highlanders, he allowed a lone unearned run in the fifth inning, but retired 27 of the 30 batters he faced in going the distance. The three NJIT baserunners in the game reached on two walks and a hit-by-pitch.
Stony Brook (9-4) scored early and often in notching its seventh straight win. The Seawolves, who got 21 total hits against the first five NJIT pitchers, scored at least one run in each of the first six innings, topped by a four-run third inning. Stony Brook hit five doubles and two triples, but there were no home runs in the game.
Three of the Seawolves' losses came against North Carolina and the fourth came against Florida Atlantic, which is a traditional power in baseball. SBU began the season with two wins at Florida Atlantic and two of the victories in its active winning streak came against Michigan.
Against NJIT, CF Travis Jankowski paced Stony Brook in hits, going 4-for-5, while 2B Maxx Tissenbaum and RF Joshua Mason each rapped out three hits. Tissenbaum, who shared RBI honors, with three, had a double and a triple. 3B Stephen Marino, also drove home three runs and finished the day 2-for-3.
NJIT (2-6) used six pitchers in total, with the starter, sophomore LHP Austin McAuliffe taking the loss after allowing five runs (four earned) in two innings. He is 0-2 on the season.
The last two NJIT relievers, senior RHP Steven Ace and freshman RHP Zach Emmett, each worked an inning without allowing a run. Ace yielded two hits, while Emmett set down Stony Brook in order in the bottom of the eighth inning.
The Highlanders, trailing 9-0 through four innings, got their first baserunner and subsequently, their first run in the top of the fifth.
Matt Tomczyk was hit by a pitch leading off the frame and advanced to second base on an error by the pitcher, Vanderka. Tomczyk moved up another base, to third, on a ground out by Tyler Kapp. And after another out, Tomczyk, the senior shortstop, scored on a wild pitch.
Stony Brook got all the runs it would need when it plated a pair in the first inning. C Pat Cantwell led off with a single and moved up a base on a wild pitch. SS Chad Marshall and after an out, stole second and went to third on a throwing error, the first of four NJIT miscues in the game. Cantwell scored on the play and Marshall later came on a sacrifice fly by Marino.
The winners added one run in the second inning, four in the third, two in the fourth, three in the fifth and two in the sixth, before Ace and Emmett kept them off the board the last two innings.
The Highlanders are off on Saturday before resuming play in the four-team tournament on Sunday morning. NJIT will face Fordham at 10 am and then wrap up against host Seton Hall in a game scheduled for 2 pm. All games are played at Owen T. Carroll Field on Seton Hall's campus.
