STONY BROOK, N.Y. - The LIU Brooklyn softball team earned a hard-fought 6-4 victory over Stony Brook for its fifth straight win in non-conference action on Wednesday afternoon. Sophomore Samantha Offenback broke a scoreless tie with an RBI double in the fifth, while classmate Erynn Sobieski, the reigning Northeast Conference Pitcher of the Week, pitched seven innings to pick up her 12th win of the season.

In contrast to last season's contest between the two teams that saw a combined 27 runs scored, neither team was able to get going offensively through the first four innings. Sobieski scattered four hits through four frames while Maddy Neales, a high school teammate of LIU Brooklyn sophomores Victoria Zamora and Angie Vazquez, allowed just one hit heading into the top of the fifth.

With two outs and a runner on first, Offenback stepped to the plate and drilled a 0-1 offering from Neales off the wall in centerfield to plate senior Ariana Lopez and give the Blackbirds a 1-0 lead. Senior Whitney West followed with an infield single, and on the play an errant throw by the Seawolves allowed Offenback to come around to score and bump LIU's lead to 2-0. 

After Sobieski worked a perfect bottom of the inning, the Blackbirds went back to work with the bats in the top of the sixth. An error and a walk put two on for Vazquez, who hit a sharp grounder through the left side to load the bases with nobody out. Another miscue by Stony Brook led to two more unearned runs for the Blackbirds to nudge the visitors in front, 4-0. Two batters later, West came through with an RBI single to centerfield to put the score at 5-0. 

Sobieski ran into a little trouble in the bottom of the fifth, as Melissa Phelan jumped on a 1-2 pitch and hit a two-run home run over the right-centerfield fence to bring Stony Brook to within 5-2. But the sophomore rebounded to get the next two batters and end the inning.

LIU Brooklyn tacked on an insurance run in the top of the seventh, as Zamora singled and moved to second on a wild pitch. Junior Kylie Mulholland followed with a single up the middle that pushed Zamora home and bumped the margin to 6-2. 

The home team would not go down without a fight, however, and loaded the bases with two outs and Diane Caruso stepping to the plate. Caruso, who entered the contest leading the Seawolves with seven home runs and had already gone 2-for-3 on the day, faced freshman Tallie Woodson who entered in relief of Sobieski. Despite falling behind in the count 0-2, Caruso was able to fight off a number of good pitches from Woodson before dunking a bloop base hit into shallow center field to drive in two and pull Stony Brook to within just two at 6-4.

Sobieski returned to face Phelan with runners at second and third, and received tremendous defensive help to close out the contest. On the first pitch she saw, Phelan hit a sharp grounder to the right side that appeared destined to plate both runners to tie the game. Freshman Evie Claussell made a diving stop of the ball and flipped to senior Celinna Cosio from her knees to get Phelan and end the contest.

LIU returns to NEC action on Saturday, April 23 at Mount St. Mary's. First pitch is set for 12:00 p.m.