WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. ? The Monmouth University baseball team fell to Sacred Heart 15-6 in the finale of four-game Northeast Conference series on Sunday afternoon. MU drops to 20-19 overall and 9-7 in the league while the Pioneers improve to 18-21-1 and 9-6 in the conference.
Sacred Heart right fielder Paul Schmidt gave the Pioneers a 5-0 lead after its first time at bat with a grand slam to straight away center field. SHU got its first run of the game when Mike Olszyk drew a base-loaded walk, forcing in Phil Tantillo.
MU cut into the lead in the bottom of the second when Paul Bottigliero doubled home Chris Collazo, who singled to lead off the frame. Catcher Bobby Dombrowski drove a sacrifice fly to center, driving in Bottigliero, and David Jacob came around to score on a throwing error from the centerfielder to make it 5-3.
The Pioneers increased their lead to 7-3 after Schmidt doubled home a pair of runs in the top of the third inning. They added to the lead when Tantillo drove in Steve Tedesco with a sacrifice fly in the top of the fourth frame. MU added a run in the fourth when Mike Casale reached on a fielder's choice, driving in Bottigliero who doubled, to cut the lead to 8-4.
SHU connected on a pair of two-run home runs in the fifth, one from Jeff Heppner and the other from Schmidt, to take a 12-4 lead and chase Monmouth starter Brett Brach.
After another Schmidt round-tripper, his third of the afternoon, Bottigliero hit his own two-run shot over the left field fence to cut the lead to 14-6 with one out in the bottom of the seventh.
Brach took the loss, his first of the season, to fall to 5-1. Brach pitched 4.0 innings, allowing 10 hits and 12 runs, 10 of which were earned. He struck out six and walked two batters in the game. Nick McNamara followed Brach, pitching the next 3.0 innings, giving up one hits and two earned runs with three punchouts and one walk. Jonathan Shippee and Matt Frazier each pitched 1.0 inning, with the freshman Shippee allowing one run.
Bottigliero was a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate with three doubles and a home run. He drove in and scored three runs apiece. Collazo was 3-for-5 with two runs scored in the game and Dombrowski was 2-for-3 with a RBI. Jacob and Holland each added two hits as well for the Hawks.
SHU's Schmidt was a perfect 5-for-5 with three home runs and 10 RBI. Four other Pioneers each had two hits and at least one run scored each in the contest.
The four-game set with Pioneers is the first NEC series the Hawks have not won or at least claimed a share of since May 4-6, 2007 when they dropped a league series at Quinnipiac.
Monmouth returns to action on Tuesday when they visit Saint Peter's for a 3:30 pm nonconference contest.
