Elon, N.C.- In game one of a three game set, the Elon Phoenix (23-14, 12-6 CAA) fell to the Stony Brook Sea Wolves (14-21, 6-10 CAA) by a score of 9-4. Elon pitching continued to flash its ability to sit runners down via the strikeout, but the Sea Wolves took advantage by jumping on the Phoenix early and collected 16 hits as a club.  
 
Justin Cassella and Luke Stephenson both launched their seventh home runs of the year with two mammoth blasts. Parker Haskin would finish with a 2-for-3 day as well as catching all nine innings behind the plate.  
 
Sam Nomura had his best outing of his young Phoenix career. Nomura struck out four batters while walking none and got the Phoenix out of a jam in the fifth inning, stranding the bases loaded after relieving Shea Sprague with no outs.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Stony Brook jumped on Elon from the word go. Evan Fox would walk to open the game then steal second base with one out. Evan Giordano would knock in Fox later in the at bat. The Phoenix picked up two errors in the inning and the Sea Wolves would bring home three more runs to take a four-run lead after one frame.
• Elon would hit into their first double play of the ball game in the bottom of the first inning following a single from Ryan Sprock.
• Shea Sprague would eventually find a groove as he retired three straight batters after surrendering a leadoff single.
• Both Luke Stephenson and Parker Haskin would claim singles in the bottom of the second, but a double play to retire Stephenson would squash any momentum.
• Elon would claim their first run of the game in large part to Kenny Mallory Jr. and timely hitting. Mallory Jr. would lash a double into the left center field gap to lead off the inning. James Broderick would hit behind Mallory Jr. to advance him to third then Charlie Granatell brought him home with a hard ground ball to short.
• Sprague would strikeout two more SBU batters in the top of the fourth, producing his third consecutive clean inning.
• The Phoenix would cut into the lead thanks to a Luke Stephenson blast in the bottom of the fourth inning. This would be Stephenson's seventh of the season and the 22^nd of his Elon career.
• The Sea Wolves would answer with two runs off Shea Sprague and Sprague would exit, leaving Sam Nomura to face the Stony Brook lineup with the bases loaded and no outs. Nomura was able to get out of the jam with no runs coming across and keeping the lead at just four.
• Stony Brook would claim two more runs in the top of the seventh following an Evan Fox single that would plate both runs and give Stony Brook a six-run lead.
• The lead was cut back to four in the bottom of the seventh inning when Justin Cassella launched his seventh homer of the season over the scoreboard in the left center field to reduce the deficit.
• Stony Brook would bring one more run across in the top half of the eighth inning and that would be the final run to cross as Stony Brook took game one of the series with Elon, 9-4.

NOTES AND STATS

• With the loss to Stony Brook in game one, Stony Brook now leads the all-time series against the Phoenix 2-0.
• Cole Reynolds had his 29 game on-base streak snapped against Stony Brook on Friday night. The 29 straight games on base is the fourth longest streak during Elon's time in the CAA and the sixth longest since 2013.   
• Luke Stephenson extended his hitting streak to 13 straight games, giving the backstop the longest hitting streak by a Phoenix batter this season and the longest hitting streak by a primary catcher in Elon's CAA history.  
• With his two-run home run, Justin Cassella clinched his seventh multi-RBI game of the year. Cassella is second on the Phoenix in multi-RBI games behind Cole Reynolds.
• With two knocks against the Sea Wolves, Parker Haskin claimed his third multi-hit game of the season.
• Shea Sprague struck out seven Stony Brook batters in Friday's matchup. This is the fifth time in his last six outings that Sprague has struck out at least six batters. In his last 12 innings of work, Sprague has struck out 16 batters.
• Sam Nomura set a career high for strikeouts in a ballgame with four strikeouts. This was also the longest outing on the season for Nomura.

 
UP NEXT
 

• The Phoenix will continue their home stand at Latham Park with game two of the weekend series with Stony Brook. First pitch time for Saturday's contest is 7 p.m.