SPARTANBURG, SC – The Monmouth baseball team allowed a four-run fourth inning to USC Upstate and fell to the Spartans, 7-1 Saturday afternoon in Spartanburg, SC. Aidan Favia (Short Hills, NJ/Millburn) led MU with two hits, and freshman Joe Molettiere (Sellersville, PA/Pennridge) added two scoreless relief innings as the Hawks fall to 2-4. USC Upstate is now 4-2 on the season.

The Spartans jumped out to a 2-0 lead on Monmouth starter Anthony Ciavarella (Phillipsburg, NJ/Phillipsburg) in the second, scoring on an error and an RBI ground out. The lead widened to 6-0 with a four-run fourth for the Spartans, getting a Brendan Brundage RBI single and a two-run double by Cody Brittain.

Monmouth got a run back in the fifth, all sparked by Favia, who led off with a base hit. He moved to second on a wild pitch, third on a fly out and scored on a second wild pitch to get the Hawks on the board. MU had a chance to add on in the inning, loading the bases with one out, but were unable to do so. The Spartans got the tally back in the bottom of the inning on Zach Krider's run-scoring double.

Molettiere tossed two more shutout innings for the Blue and White in relief, allowing just two hits, while James Kelly (Oceanport, NJ/Shore Regional) surrendered a run in his two innings. Ciavarella worked four innings, allowing six runs, four earned, on seven hits with five strikeouts.

Zach Mitchell earned the win for the Spartans, throwing 1.1 scoreless innings. Starter Eric Birklund worked just 4.2, giving up a run on two hits and exiting with the bases loaded. Brittain had three hits and two runs driven in.

The Hawks wrap up the weekend against Evansville tomorrow afternoon at noon in Spartanburg, SC.