EMMITSBURG, MD. ? Mount St. Mary's junior Ryan Murray's three-run walk-off homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth lifted Mount St. Mary's past Monmouth, 9-8, in Northeast Conference action at E.T. Straw Family Stadium. The home run capped a four-run ninth and gave the Mount a split in the four-game series.

Trailing 8-5 heading into the bottom of the ninth, Matt Eiden walked and Drew Counselman singled off Monmouth's Matt Frazier to open the frame. With one out, Josh Vittek singled to center field to load the bases for Eric Smith, who flied out to right to drive home Eiden to cut the deficit to 8-6. Murray then connected on a 2-1 pitch over the right-field fence for a three-run home run to give the Mount the 9-8 victory.

The Mount opened the scoring with an unearned run in the third. After an Eiden walk, Counselman hit into a fielder's choice, stole second and advanced to third on an error. Counselman then scored on an Ivor Hodgson sacrifice fly.

The Hawks (14-10-1, 2-2 NEC) answered with three runs in the fourth. Rick Niederhaus tripled home Shawn Teters for the first run and then scored on a Mike Casale sacrifice fly. Chris Collazo followed with a single, and Brett Holland tripled to right to drive home Collazo.

The Mount cut the deficit to 3-2 in the sixth on a Smith RBI single, but Kyle Messineo hit a three-run homer to spark a four-run seventh to give Monmouth a 7-2 lead. In the seventh, John Dennis and Kyle Higgins singled to set the table for Messineo's fifth home run of the year. Andy Meyers then singled and eventually scored on a Niederhaus sacrifice fly.

The Mount chipped away at the Monmouth lead, scoring a run in the seventh and two more in the eighth to cut the deficit to 7-5.  In the seventh, Stephen Fay scored on a Hodgson fielder's choice.  In the eighth, Fay had an RBI groundout and Matt Trusch scored on a wild pitch. Niederhaus had an RBI single in the top of the ninth to give Monmouth an 8-5 advantage.

Neiderhaus was 3-for-4 with three RBI and Meyers 3-for-5 on the day for Monmouth.

Monmouth starter Matt Coulson allowed three runs (two earned) in six innings of work in the no decision.

Momouth returns to action on Tuesday, April 10, when the Hawks travel to Princeton for a 3 p.m., non-conference contest.