2015 MAAC Baseball Tournament
Dates: May 20-24, 2015
Stadium: Dutchess County Stadium (4,494), Fishkill, N.Y.
Live Video: Available at MAAC.tv (Fees apply)
Live Stats: www.MAACSports.com

Monmouth's first game: 3:30 p.m. vs. Siena on Wednesday, 5/20

Click above for a video preview featuring Head Coach Dean Ehehalt and senior OF Steve Wilgus.

2015 MAAC Baseball Seeding
1: Rider (28-20, 15-6 MAAC)
2: Canisius (29-27, 16-8 MAAC)
3: Quinnipiac (27-25, 15-9 MAAC)
4: Siena (20-26, 13-8 MAAC)
5: Monmouth (22-22, 14-10 MAAC)
6: Marist (18-25-1, 12-12 MAAC)

MU vs. MAAC Tournament Field (2015/all-time series)
vs. Rider    : 1-2/28-24 Rider        vs. Siena: 2-1/Tied 2-2
vs. Canisius: 2-1/4-2 Canisius    vs. Marist: DNP/15-8 Monmouth
vs. Quinnipiac: 1-2/36-21 Monmouth   

TWO HAWKS NAMED ALL-CONFERENCE
At Tuesday's awards banquet, a pair of Hawks earned all-conference honors, as seniors T.J. Hunt and Kyle Perry were named All-MAAC Second Team. Perry is hitting .270 in his senior season with a team-high 13 doubles and has been strong behind the plate all year long, throwing out 19 runners trying to steal. Hunt leads MU in ERA at 4.04 and is tied for the team-high in wins with five, completing five games, including a CG in every home start this season. On May 9, Hunt fired the first no-hitter for Monmouth since 2007, when current Baltimore Oriole Brad Brach did it against Long Island. 

HUNT'S NO-HITTER
On Saturday, May 9, senior RHP T.J. Hunt threw a no-hitter in a 1-0 win over Saint Peter's, the first for a Hawk since current Baltimore Oriole Brad Brach did it in 2007 against LIU. He faced just 23 batters and struck out five while walking just two on 90 pitches. Later that week he was named the Louisville Slugger Player of the Week by the Collegiate Baseball News, as well as earning MAAC and ECAC Pitcher of the Week. He was nominated for the Capital One Impact Performance of the Week on ESPN.com and won the vote with 41% of the tallies with over 9,100 votes cast, including winning the poll in 47 of 50 states. He topped UCF softball's Samantha McCloskey (21%), Albany lacrosse's Lyle Thompson (19%) and Ohio State lacrosse's David Planning (19%).

600 FOR EHEHALT
In the March 28 win over Manhattan, MU head coach Dean Ehehalt earned his 600th career win. Ehehalt, the 22nd year head man at Monmouth, picked up the win when Grant Lamberton worked a bases loaded walk in the 13th inning. Freshman Mike Brambilla grabbed his first ever collegiate win in Ehehalt's 600th.

OFFENSIVE EXPLOSIONS
The Monmouth offense exploded in the win over Princeton, scoring 14 runs on 13 hits. Shaine Hughes was 3-4 with 4 RBI's, Chris Gaetano hit a three-run homer and Sean Arnott hit his first career home run to left field as a pinch hitter in the 8th. The 14 runs was the most Monmouth had scored since a 14-4 win at Hofstra last April 29.  MU extended that hot offensive stretch at Niagara the following weekend, where the Hawks used six long balls to take two-of-three, including two each from Ryan Bailey and Shaine Hughes. In the first game of the series, Hughes hit two long balls and was joined by Bailey, Grant Lamberton and Dan Shea in taking Niagara pitching deep. Hughes' second homer came in extras to give MU the lead for good and were the first two of his career, while Bailey knocked his first two collegiate blasts as well. Lamberton and Shea added homers as MU pounded out 21 hits in the game. Finally, on senior day against Saint Peter's, Monmouth scored 17 runs on 19 hits, the most runs for Monmouth since a 4/27/13 win in an 18-run outburst over Sacred Heart. Adam Yunginger knocked his first career homer in the game, and Kyle Perry had four hits on senior day.

TROCHIANO'S EMERGENCE
Freshman infielder Justin Trochiano has broken out as a major part of the MU lineup late in the season, coming into the tournament hitting .327. He didn't see action until nearly a month into the season, picking up his first career hit and stolen base in his first appearance on March 7 at East Carolina. He picked up four hits in his first three games and eventually started 15 games down the stretch for Monmouth. The Marlboro High School product has four multi-hit games, and drove in the only run in T.J. Hunt's no-hitter, a 1-0 win over Saint Peter's on May 9. He capped off the regular season with a huge home run, the first of his collegiate career, in the 9th inning at Rider to give the Hawks the lead and eventual win.

CANCELLATIONS
As many teams deal with in the Northeast, Monmouth has had several games washed out due to weather. A full weekend of games at James Madison was eliminated in February and all four games against Wagner were not played. Two games, vs. FDU on 3/25 and vs. Lafayette on 4/23, were halted due to weather at some point in the first three innings. MU has played just 44 games to this point in the season, which would be their least since playing just 36 games in 1994-Coach Ehehalt's first season as the head coach of the Hawks.

GAETANO'S HOT STREAK
Sophomore OF Chris Gaetano had a huge weekend in Richmond, going 8-18 (.444) in the four games. He put up a slugging percentage of .833, including his first career home run and triple against Minnesota. He scored six runs and drove in five in Monmouth's three win-weekend, scoring the winning run against JMU on Dan Shea's walk-off double back on March 15.

A WINNING TRADITION
Monmouth baseball has posted a winning season in eight out of the last 11 years, and have won 30+ games in seven of those seasons. With that run of 30-win seasons, the Hawks are one of 64 teams nationally and one of just five teams from the Northeast to put together such a streak. In 11 of the last 16 seasons, MU has played in the conference championship game and have reached the conference tournament in 16 of the last 17 seasons. Over that span, five Hawks have earned conference player of the year honors and five pitchers have been named conference pitcher of the year.
 
BIG IN-STATE WIN
On Wednesday, April 1, the Hawks went up to Piscataway, N.J. and beat in-state rival Rutgers of the Big Ten, 6-4. It was MU's eighth ever win over RU and second over a Big Ten program after the Hawks knocked off Penn State in 2008. Robbie Alessandrine and Kyle Perry each had three hits and Ricky Dennis tossed five innings in his first career start without allowing an earned run to grab his second collegiate win. Frank Trimarco threw a scoreless ninth to pick up his first career save, while Shaine Hughes and Ryan Bailey each added two hits. Overall as an athletic department, Monmouth posted a 5-1 record against in-state foe Rutgers, downing the Scarlet Knights in field hockey, men's soccer, women's lacrosse and men's lacrosse.

BIG WEEK FOR TWO SENIORS
Seniors Steve Wilgus and Kyle Perry both broke out during a stretch in April between the Princeton win through the Seton Hall victory. The pair combined to go 12-37 (.324), drive in 10 runs, score 11 and draw seven walks. They also stole four bases and Perry drove in the winning run at Seton Hall with a 10th inning sacrifice fly.

WILGUS/PERRY AT FAU
In February at FAU, senior catcher Kyle Perry picked up his second career game with multiple extra base hits and his first since April 18, 2014 at Fairfield. On the same night, senior center fielder Steve Wilgus recorded his 14th career three-hit game.

PROTECTING WEST LONG BRANCH
Monmouth went 11-5 this year at the MU Baseball Field, including an 8-4 mark in conference play.  It marks the 18th straight season the Hawks have posted a winning record at home and outscored opponents 88-55 overall. From the sixth through the eighth inning on campus this season, MU bested opponents 48-13. In the last six years, Coach Ehehalt's squad is 87-30-1 at home, a .737 winning percentage.

HAWKS WHO HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE
The Hawks graduate nine seniors this season, all four-year members of the Monmouth baseball program. They have qualified for the conference tournament in each of their four years in the program, including a regular season championship and top seed in the tournament in 2012 as freshmen. The group has four conference tournament wins to its credit. In addition to this year's seniors, the underclassmen all have tournament experience with the exception of this year's freshmen class.

MU ON ESPN3
On February 12, Monmouth Athletics released a 24-game spring schedule of games to be aired on ESPN3, including multiple MU baseball games. The Monmouth-produced broadcasts aired nine games at the MU Baseball Field, in addition to multiple showings of men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse, and softball plus men's and women's basketball after launching the initiative in December 2014. The final Monmouth ESPN3 broadcast of the season was T.J. Hunt's no-hitter on May 9 vs. Saint Peter's. As a whole, Monmouth baseball posted a 6-3 record on ESPN3 this season, including winning its last four games on the worldwide leader in sports.

STREAKING LATE IN THE SEASON
Similar to last season, Monmouth got hot later in the year at almost the same time in 2015 that they did in 2014. This year, Monmouth won five in a row between April 25 and May 2 and nine out of 10 from April 25-May 10, the lone loss coming on a walk-off at Siena. The Hawks enter this weekend's tournament having won 10 out of 13, with all but two of those games coming in conference. Last year, MU went on a similar streak, ripping off 11 consecutive victories and 12 of 13 between April 19 and May 11.

WHERE DO THEY RANK
A pair of pitchers have a chance to make a move up the charts in the Monmouth record books during this year's postseason. Senior RHP Jeff Paglione ranks sixth in career appearances with 62 and is tied for seventh in saves in a career with seven. If Paglione makes three more appearances, he will tie Kyle Breese for fifth at 65. Senior righty T.J. Hunt has posted 16 career wins, good for a tie for ninth all-time. He sits one win behind both Jim Carone and Nick Meyers, who have 17, and two back of Joe Aragona at 18. Hunt is also 12 strikeouts from moving into the top-10 in program history, with 141 in his four seasons. Brett Brach currently holds the 10th spot with 153 K's.

HAWKS IN THE PROS
Active Players

BRAD BRACH
RHP-Baltimore Orioles

Brach was a member of the Baltimore Orioles bullpen for the majority of last season, going 7-1 on the season and pitching into the ALCS with Baltimore. He won Game 2 of the ALDS against the Detroit Tigers, and posted a 3.18 ERA in the regular season. This year, Brach has 24 strikeouts in 17 innings, and is 1-0 with a 4.24 earned run average and a save.


PAT LIGHT
RHP-Boston Red Sox

Light was a first round pick of the Boston Red Sox in 2012, 37th overall, and is currently pitching for Bostons AA affiliate, the Portland Sea Dogs. He is 1-1 pitching from the bullpen this season with a 3.18 ERA, striking out 25 in 20.2 innings. Opponents are hitting just .158 against the righty, who has given up just one earned run in his last nine outings for Portland.

JAKE GRONSKY
IF-St. Louis Cardinals

After beginning his career post-Monmouth in an independent league, Gronsky latched on with the St. Louis Cardinals, hitting .288 with five doubles last season with the Cardinals affiliate in the Gulf Coast League.

STEPHEN FREY
LHP-Normal Cornbelters

Frey is currently pitching for the Normal Cornbelters in the independent Frontier League. He threw in 19 games last season to a 4.41 ERA, striking out 21.

Other Hawks who have played in pros

-RHP Ryan Buch
-RHP Brett Brach
-IF Ryan Terry
-IF Kyle Higgins
-IF Lance Koenig
-RHP Chris Della Rocco
-C Mike St. Martine

24 players on the Monmouth roster hail from the Garden State. Among them is 10 players from the local area, having played their high school baseball in the Shore Conference.

Monmouth is 18-1 when they outhit their opponent, including 12-1 in conference play. Conversely, the Hawks are 4-21 this year when being outhit, including 2-9 in league play.

4 players on the Monmouth roster hail from the Garden State. Among them is 10 players from the local area, having played their high school baseball in the Shore Conference.