EMMITSBURG, MD. - The Monmouth University baseball team concluded the final regular season Northeast Conference game with a 12-3 victory at Mount, Saturday afternoon at Straw Family Stadium. The Hawks, who already locked up the number one seed for the NEC Tournament next weekend, was paced by Josh Boyd's (Port Murray, N.J./West Morris Central) four RBIs and starter Pat Light's (Colts Neck, N.J./Christian Brothers Academy) career-high 10 strike outs.
Monmouth's (34-17, 25-7 NEC) 25 league victories sets the new program record for conference wins, erasing the previous mark of 23 set in 2002. The 2011 NEC Regular Season Champions will begin postseason play at noon on Thursday, May 19th at Dodd Stadium in Norwich, Connecticut. The Hawks opponent is not yet determined.
Light picked up his second-straight victory, fanning a career high. The sophomore righty allowed three runs on five hits while only walking two in 7.0 innings of work. Rookie Andrew McGree (Toms River, N.J./Toms River South) threw two perfect inning of relief to secure the win.
Ryan Terry (Levittown, Pa./Harry S. Truman) singled to start the fourth, moved to second on Nick Pulsonetti's (Old Tappan, N.J./Northern Valley Regional) free pass and advanced to third on Owen Stewart's (Howell, N.J./St. Rose) infield single. Cal Costanzo (Edison, N.J./Edison) sent a ball to the left side of the infield that was booted by the third baseman which allowed Terry to touch home to break the scoreless tie. Three batters later, Josh Boyd (Port Murray, N.J./West Morris Central) connected on a base-clearing double to left, scoring Pulsonetti, Stewart and Costanzo, to push the Hawks' lead to 4-0.
Mount got on the board in the home half of the fourth on Mark Quaranta's RBI single and Zach Helman's run-scoring double, to cut the lead in half, 4-2. Quaranta added another RBI base-hit in the sixth to bring MSM within one, 4-3.
MU pulled away in the seventh as Jamie Rosenkranz (Oakhurst, N.J./Ocean Township) walked and Ed Martin (Hazlet, N.J./Raritan [Brookdale CC]) delivered a pinch-hit single moving Rosenkranz to second. Two batters later, Pulsonetti earned a free pass and Stewart followed by reaching on an error by the first baseman allowing Rosenkranz to score. Costanzo then registered a two-run double to the right-center field gap, chasing in Martin and Pulsonetti, and moving Stewart to third. Rookie Jake Gronsky (Danville, Pa./Danville Area) dropped down fielder's choice, sacrifice bunt, scoring Stewart, and Boyd registered his fourth RBI with a single to left-center, plating Costanzo. Rosenkranz, who lead of the frame, connected on a RBI double down the left field line to bring around Gronksy to give MU a demanding 10-3 lead.
Chris Perret's (Morris Plains, N.J./Morris Catholic) pinch-hit single, scoring Kyle O'Neill (Tinton Falls, N.J./Red Bank Catholic [Pacific]) who was hit by a pitch, and Tom Valichka (Pennsville, N.J./St. Mark's) infield groundout scoring Perret accounted for the Hawks final runs of the contest.
Boyd drove in four runs on two hits, while Costanzo added three RBIs and scored a pair of runs. Martin went 2-for-2 off the bench for the Blue and White.
Monmouth will conclude its regular season schedule with a non-conference affair with Rutgers at 1 p.m. on Monday, May 16th, in Piscataway.
