Stacy Kuwik was in complete control. The Syracuse pitcher was mowing down the Binghamton batters at a torrid pace.

But even Kuwik didn’t realize how many hitters failed to even make contact at the plate.

‘I could see that I was handling a team pretty well and that a lot of them were sitting down instead of getting on,’ Kuwik said. ‘I knew I had a lot, I just didn’t know how many.’

Kuwik struck out a career-high 17 batters to lead Syracuse to a 2-0 victory over Binghamton, completing a sweep of the team’s doubleheader in front of 133 at Skytop Softball Stadium on Thursday. SU ace Jenna Caira set the tone in the circle in the first game for the Orange (28-9, 5-1 Big East) with a season-high 13 strikeouts in a 6-1 win over the Bearcats (15-19, 6-3 America East). But on Thursday, Kuwik stole the spotlight with a dominant performance, throwing a complete-game and allowing just three hits.

After Kuwik surrendered a leadoff double and threw a past ball that allowed the runner to advance to third base, she displayed pinpoint control and exceptional movement on her pitches.

With a runner 43 feet away from scoring, Kuwik struck out the next three batters in order. And that was only the start of her career day. She fanned the next 11 batters, recording the first 14 outs by strikeout.

In the fourth inning, she struck out three Binghamton hitters on just 10 pitches.

Kuwik’s two go-to pitches, her rise ball and curveball had an extra bite, even in chilly weather. And for the Bearcats, making contact was nearly impossible.

‘They’re the ones I take out teams with all the time,’ Kuwik said. ‘And those were the two that were working the best.’

Binghamton threatened in two different innings, moving a runner into scoring position, but Kuwik remained in control both times. 

With two outs in the top of fifth inning, she hit a batter and ran the count to 2-0 during the next at bat. Kuwik appeared to be losing the accuracy she relied on for most of the day.

That’s when senior catcher Lacey Kohl came out to calm her down.

‘She sometimes gets in a big rush. She started rushing her pitches,’ Kohl said. ‘It was really going out there and slowing her down and kind of slowing the game down all together.’

And for a pitcher who works at a fast pace in the circle, the break helped her calm sown and she got out of the inning with a soft lineout to shortstop Morgan Nandin.

While Kuwik was delivering a gem, Binghamton starting pitcher Demi Laney was matching her, confounding SU hitters and holding them scoreless through three innings. But with two outs in the bottom of the fourth, Carrie Leigh-Thomas singled to keep the inning alive and freshman Julie Wambold extended her hands to crush a two-run shot over the left-center-field wall. 

It was her ninth homer of the year, tying her with Leigh-Thomas for the team lead and giving the Orange a 2-0 lead.

‘We’re a home-run winning team and the more we hit home runs, the more we’re going to win,’ Kohl said.

Those two runs were more than enough for Kuwik, who only allowed one more base runner after her fifth-inning funk.

Kuwik worked quickly and got ahead in the count time and time again, staying sharp from her first pitch to her last one.

‘I’m glad she stayed strong for the whole seven innings,’ Ross said. ‘Usually she throws hard for like four and then she loses it a little bit, but she did a great job today.’

Kuwik’s dominant performance rarely relented and with at least one strikeout coming in each inning, Binghamton never had a chance to get on the board after the first inning.

And like Kuwik, Ross was somewhat shocked after the game to learn her pitcher finished with 17 strikeouts.

‘Is that how many she had?’ Ross asked. ‘I wasn’t even keeping track.’

dgproppe@syr.edu

Published on April 12, 2012 at 12:00 pm