Stony Brook baseball had its moments in its opening season in the Coastal Athletic Association last year.

A postseason berth in league debut, however, was just out of the Seawolves’ sights. But if you know the history of Stony Brook baseball, you know it’s foolish to count it out for long.

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After ruling the America East Conference for the better part of two decades, the Seawolves are beginning to create more history in a new era in the CAA — and the headline-making results, as evidenced by a big nonconference win early in the current season, are starting to return.

Will conference gold return Stony Brook’s way this year, too?

Here’s a look at all you need to know about Stony Brook baseball now that the college baseball season is underway.

How Did Stony Brook Baseball Do in 2023? 

There was a lot of buzz surrounding Stony Brook’s arrival to the CAA for the 2023 season, and for good reason, both because of the program’s pedigree and history on the diamond and also due to its controversial exit from its former league. 

Finishing with the joint-best record in America East play (21-9) during their final season there in 2022, the Seawolves were instead ruled ineligible for the league’s postseason tournament due to their impending move to the CAA, giving the program an extra chip on its shoulder heading into its inaugural year in its new conference. 

The CAA is no cakewalk, however, and Stony Brook learned that fast as it finished 23-29 overall with a 14-16 record in league play, barely missing out on qualification to the CAA Baseball Championship as the conference’s seventh-placed team at the end of the regular season despite two separate four-game CAA winning streaks late in the year. 

Who Coaches Stony Brook Baseball?

From his early days of leading a program in the Division III ranks to taking it to a D-I College World Series berth, Matt Senk has seen it all in his time at Stony Brook. Currently amid his 34th season in charge, with over 900 career wins in his tenure, Senk built the Seawolves from the ground up at the D-I level as it joined the America East in 2002, just three years after making the jump up in competition from D-II. 

Has Stony Brook Baseball Ever Won the College World Series?

No, Stony Brook baseball has never won the College World Series. The Seawolves did make one of the most remarkable Cinderella runs in the sport’s history back in 2012, however, winning their Regional as a No. 4 seed before upsetting LSU in the Super Regional to make it to Omaha. 

Defeats to mighty UCLA and Florida State once there ended Stony Brook’s charge, but as New York’s first team to make the CWS in 30 years, that team left a lasting legacy.

Notable Returning Players

Evan Fox, INF/OF

When dissecting Fox’s skillset, the first thing that jumps off the page is speed, speed, and more speed. Stony Brook’s all-time leader in stolen bases by a wide margin, having set the record in the middle of his junior season, Fox ranked third in the country and first in the CAA last season with 39 swipes, the second straight season in which the Seawolves’ leadoff man had at least 30 steals to his name.

Batting a career-best .333 and showcasing a little bit of previously untapped power (eight home runs, 37 RBIs), Fox had little issue with adjusting to the CAA and played better numbers-wise in a lot of statistical categories.

Matt Brown-Eiring, INF

An All-CAA Honorable Mention last season and an All-America East First Team nod the year before, Brown-Eiring has been getting it done for the Seawolves in the batter’s box for a little while now, but even by his standards, his start to the 2024 season has been pretty wild. 

He ripped out to a seven-game hitting streak to begin the year, a three-game series at Virginia Tech with a .414 average and 11 RBIs from 12 hits—including three consecutive games with three RBIs against Purdue during Stony Brook’s four-game series with the Boilermakers on opening weekend. 

Well on pace to smash his previous season's best of 50 RBIs in a single season in 2022, Brown-Eiring has been fun to watch early on in 2024, and the pace and potency in which he’s been lighting up pitchers has been a great asset to Stony Brook thus far.

Notable Newcomers

Erik Paulsen, 1B/LHP

Shutting down the defending national champion with one of the most dangerous lineups in all of America in just your second college appearance? It sounds crazy, but it was all in a day’s work for Paulsen, who contributed heavily to one of the biggest upsets of the year so far—Stony Brook’s 5-2 win over No. 2-ranked LSU last Friday in Baton Rouge. 

Fellow freshman Nicholas Rizzo deserves some props for an eight-inning, one-run gem in a win over Northwestern State a day later, as well, but Paulsen’s four innings of no-run ball on the mighty Tigers put the Seawolves on the map as he allowed just three hits while striking out two to pick up the save and shut the door on a team many are picking to repeat as the national champion.

Cam Santerre, OF

Spending four seasons at D-III Rhode Island College before making the leap up to D-I with Stony Brook, Santerre is fitting right in with Fox at the top of the batting order as a high-contact speedster who makes opposing infielders sweat. During his final year with the Anchormen in 2023, Santerre was D-III’s national leader in stolen bases with an eye-popping 54 on 58 attempts, scoring 72 runs on top of it to break school single-season records in both categories. 

His career .367 average with 90 walks at RIC certainly didn’t hurt his stock as a grad transfer, either, and once Santerre got his first opportunity to contribute for the Seawolves in their first game of the opening-weekend doubleheader against Purdue, he ran with it. 

Santerre went 2 for 4 with three runs, an RBI, and a triple in his first career game as a D-I player and hasn’t left the lineup since, picking up a bases-loaded walk to bring the go-ahead run home in Stony Brook’s shock win over LSU to boot. 

Stony Brook Baseball Schedule 2024

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2024 Stony Brook Baseball Roster 

How To Watch CAA Baseball in 2024

Watch CAA Baseball in 2024 on FloBaseball and the FloSports app.

FloBaseball will be streaming several season-opening college baseball tournaments, including the Shriners Children's College Showdown, Sanderson Ford College Baseball Classic and the Kubota College Baseball Series.

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