Johnson Pitches Stony Brook To Super Regional Game Two Win

6/9/2012 7:43:00 PM

America East Communications

BATON ROUGE, La.-- Stony Brook University continued its historic baseball season with a 3-1 win over LSU at Alex Box Stadium on the Tigers' campus in front of 9,446 fans. The win tied the best-of-three NCAA Super Regional series at one game apiece and puts the Seawolves just one win away from the program's first-ever College World Series appearance.

Game three of the Baton Rouge Super Regional will be Sunday at noon CT, 1 p.m. ET live on ESPN2. Saturday's split sets up a loser-goes-home rubber match on Sunday between Stony Brook (51-13) and LSU (47-17).

Stony Brook senior right-handed pitcher Tyler Johnson, who started and won two games at last week's Coral Gables Regional, came back again on Saturday against LSU to throw 127 pitches and go the full nine innings allowing just one unearned run and three hits.

Johnson, the America East Pitcher of the Year, picked up his third win on the mound during the Seawolves' 2012 NCAA run and his fourth career NCAA Postseason victory.

"At this point of the year, you're doing it for the guy next to you," said Johnson postgame. "It's been a pleasure playing with these guys and it's been a pleasure going out there every week and pitching for them. So going nine innings and doing what I did today is more, I think, for the guys next to you."

The Stony Brook bats went up against the number four overall pick Kevin Gausman pitching for the Tigers after Gausman pitched one inning to close out the resumed game one earlier in the day Saturday. The LSU starter went the first seven innings of game two, giving up six hits, three earned runs and a walk while striking out six.

Kevin Courtney provided the pop in the Stony Brook lineup, going 3-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored. William Carmona went 1-for-4 with an RBI and Sal Intagliata went 1-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI.

Like Friday, the Seawolves jumped out to a 2-0 lead. Intagliata drove in Courtney from third with a single up the middle off a 3-1 pitch. Travis Jankowski continued the inning with a single to left field which advanced Intagliata to second. Pat Cantwell hit into a fielder's choice to put men on first and third followed by Carmona's RBI single to score Intagliata.

Johnson got out of a jam in the top of the fifth frame after giving up LSU's first hit of the game. With runners on first and third and two outs, Johnson induced leadoff hitter Austin Nola into a 4-3 putout to end the threat.

The Seawolves tacked on their third run of the game with Courtney's leadoff home run to right field in the bottom of the fifth, his fourth long ball of the season.

LSU responded in the top of the next inning with one run on two hits, including Raph Rhymes' RBI single through the right side of the field, and an error, but left a runner stranded.

Postgame, Stony Brook Head Coach Matt Senk had nothing but praise for his team. "Tyler [Johnson] just keeps out-doing himself every time he gets the ball. Kevin [Courtney] is kind of the offensive version of Tyler. He keeps doing some amazing things for us offensively coming up big. These guys basically epitomize our team."

Stony Brook snapped LSU's streak of 11 straight Regional/Super Regional victories in both the new and old Alex Box Stadium. It also halted the Tigers' 14-game winning streak against non-SEC opponents dating back to March 14.

Should Stony Brook win game three and advance to the College World Series, the Seawolves would be the first America East program to reach Omaha since the league began sponsoring the sport in 1990. Current member Maine made seven College World Series appearances with two third-place finishes and a fourth-place finish, but all came prior to 1990.

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Johnson Pitches Stony Brook To Super Regional Game Two Win