SPARTANBURG, SC – The Monmouth baseball team scored six runs in its final two at bats and Ryan Bailey (Mount Kisco, NY/Fox Lane) hit a walk-off single to beat UNC Asheville 8-7 in the bottom of the ninth Friday at Wofford. Monmouth is now 2-3 while the Bulldogs fall to 1-3.

“Our guys never gave up and pulled out a hard fought win,” said head coach Dean Ehehalt. “Our guys kept fighting, capitalized on some opportunities and Ryan Bailey came up with the game winner.  We really strung some good at bats together.”

Shaine Hughes (Sewell, NJ/Washington Township) opened the ninth inning with a walk and Dan Shea (Wilmington, DE/Salesianum) reached on an error with Monmouth trailing 7-6. Aidan Favia (Short Hills, NJ/Millburn) moved both of them over with a sacrifice bunt, and Chris Gaetano (Madison Township, PA/Scranton Preparatory) tied the game with a single up the middle. Bailey came up with runners on the corners and one out and singled to center for a walk-off hit, completing Monmouth's comeback.

The Hawks entered the eighth down 7-2, and opened the inning with consecutive walks and scored after two straight wild pitches. Shea reached on an error in left field and a run scored on the sacrifice fly to cut it to 7-4, and another error on Bailey's ball to shortstop plated a third run. The Hawks got to within a run on Justin Trochiano's (Morganville, NJ/Marlboro) RBI single to make it 7-6 heading to the ninth.

UNC Asheville scored runs in every inning between the fifth and the eighth, starting in the fifth when Pete Guy hit a two-run homer. Guy knocked another two-run shot in the sixth, and Lucas Owens added a run in the seventh on an RBI single. Kyle Carruthers doubled home a run in the eighth, extending the Bulldog lead to 7-2.

Shea hit his first home run of the season after a Hughes triple in the fifth, a two-run blast to cut the MU deficit to 5-3. Owens doubled in a run in the first to put UNC Asheville up 1-0 early.

Shea led MU with two hits, three runs and three RBI's while Hughes scored three times. Freshman Tyler Ksiazek (South Abington Township, PA/Abington Heights) earned his first collegiate win after Frank Trimarco (Merrick, NY/Sanford H. Calhoun) allowed three runs with four strikeouts through five.

Lucas Clarke took the loss for the Bulldogs after Joe Zayatz started and tossed seven innings and allowed two runs. Owens had three hits and Guy homered twice for Asheville.

MU is back in action tomorrow against USC Upstate at 4:00 p.m. in Spartanburg, SC.