HARRISONBURG, VA– Pete Papcun (Brick, NJ/Christian Brothers Academy), Chris Gaetano (Madison Township, PA/Scranton Preparatory), and Shaine Hughes (Sewell, NJ/Washington Township) all hit home runs and the Monmouth baseball team scored a season-high 11 runs in beating James Madison, 11-10 on the road Tuesday. MU improves to 5-9 on the season, while JMU drops to 7-10.
“We swung the bats pretty good today and did what we needed to do to get the win,” said head coach Dean Ehehalt. “Ryan Byrd made a play to end the 8th that was spectacular. It seemed as though we pitched out of trouble after pitching into it.”
The Hawks jumped on the Dukes immediately on a first inning RBI double from Dan Shea (Wilmington, DE/Salesianum) ahead of Papcun's two-run shot, the first of his career, to make it 3-0. JMU got runs back in the first and second on an RBI ground out and a sacrifice fly.
The Blue and White posted four runs in the top of the third, getting Papcun's third run batted in on a single ahead of a three-run shot to right off the bat of Gaetano, extending the MU lead to 7-2. The Dukes answered with a run on a wild pitch in the third to trim it to 7-3.
Tyler Carroll's ground out plated a run in the fourth consecutive inning for JMU to make it 7-4 in the fourth, but the Hawks answered with four more in the sixth. Grant Lamberton (Newark, DE/Salesianum) singled through the right side to bring a run around, and Hughes delivered the third long ball of the day, a three-run tally to extend the MU lead to 11-4.
The Dukes battled back with a run in the sixth and three more in the seventh, two of which came on Chad Carroll's triple to left center. Trailing 11-8 entering the ninth, Tanner Dofflemyer doubled in a run and with two down, JMU loaded the bases and Adam Sisk walked to cut it to 11-10. With the bases full, Justin Andrews (Langhorne, PA/Neshaminy) got a ground out from Kyle McPherson to end the game and secure the MU win.
Mike Brambilla (Cherry Hill, NJ/Cherry Hill East) got the win for Monmouth, and Andrews earned his second save. Hughes, Papcun and Gaetano all drove in three and had two hits, while Lamberton scored three times and Shea and Ryan Bailey (Mount Kisco, NY/Fox Lane) had two hits apiece.
Daniel Pinson took the loss for the Dukes, one of eight JMU pitchers used on the afternoon. Carroll and Dofflemyer each had three hits.
“Games like this always test toughness,” added Ehehalt.
MU is back on the diamond tomorrow afternoon at VCU.
