RICHMOND, VA– Highlighted by a six-run fourth inning, the Monmouth University baseball team picked up its second-straight road victory by downing VCU, 12-4, Wednesday night at The Diamond. The Hawks, whose top-three in the lineup combined to go 6-for-15 at the plate and drive in 11 highlighted by Dan Shea's (Wilmington, DE/Salesianum) three-extra base hits, including his second home run of the year, improve to 6-9 with the victory, while the Rams drop to 9-6 on the season.
“Joe Molettiere was tremendous and Jordan McCrum was very effective as well,” said head coach Dean Ehehalt. “The two of them showed a lot of poise and competed extremely well.”
After a scoreless three innings, Pete Papcun (Brick, NJ/Christian Brothers Academy) led off the top of the fourth with a double down the right field line and after Chris Gaetano (Madison Township, PA/Scranton Preparatory) got hit by a pitch, both advanced a base on Cary Jacobson's (Los Angeles, CA/Palisades) groundout. Following a walk to Clay Koniencki (Schwenksville, PA/Malvern Prep) to load the bases, Papcun came home to score on Justin Trochiano's (Morganville, NJ/Marlboro) sacrifice fly. Robbie Alessandrine (Sewell, NJ/Gloucester Catholic) followed with an infield single to reload the bases to set up Grant Lamberton's (Newark, DE/Salesianum) two-run single to right center to put MU up 3-0. Back-to-back doubles from Shaine Hughes (Sewell, NJ/Washington Township) and Shea capped off the six-run inning.
The Rams got a run back in the bottom of the inning when Jimmy Kerrigan doubled in Cody Acker who reached via an error.
Koniencki worked a lead off in the eighth and moved into a scoring position via a wild pitch. Trochiano laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Koniencki to third and Alessandrine walked before Lamberton flied out. Hughes followed and connected on a two-out single, which pushed Alessandrine to third. Shea followed with a three-run home run to inflate Monmouth's lead to 10-1.
The Rams produced a run in the bottom of the eighth after Kerrigan earned a one-out walk and Cooper Mickelson singled to right center to push him to third. Haiden Lamb connected on a pinch-hit single to right to plate Kerrigan to make the score 10-2.
The Hawks scored a pair of runs in the ninth when Lamberton was plunked with a pitch with the bases loaded and Hughes recorded a sacrifice fly to put the Hawks up by 10. Kerrigan blasted a two-out, two-run homer, but the Jesse Fante (Moorestown, NJ/Moorestown) finished out the inning by getting Mickelson to ground out to close out the victory.
Joe Molettiere (Sellersville, PA/Pennridge) earned his first career win, allowing one unearned run and striking out six just in short of five innings of work. Jordan McCrum (Dallas, PA/Dallas Senior) worked 3.1 frames out of the bullpen, allowing a run on five hits and two walks, while punching out a pair. Fante pitched the ninth, registering a strikeout despite allowing the homerun.
“We capitalized with two big innings,” added Ehehalt. “Hughes and Shea once again came through in clutch fashion. Our lineup functioned as a group extremely well.”
Monmouth returns to action on Friday, March 18th when it opens a three game set at East Carolina.
