DALLAS, TX – Monmouth Baseball was defeated by No. 11 Dallas Baptist on opening night at Horner Ballpark 7-4, with Shaine Hughes (Sewell, NJ/Washington Township) leading MU with three hits, an RBI and a run scored. MD Johnson picked up the win for DBU, who scored in four separate innings to take the win in the season opener.

The Patriots got on the board first with a two-out RBI single in the second inning, before Dennis stranded a pair of runners with his second strikeout of the night. Dallas Baptist tacked on three runs in the bottom of the third, with two coming on an infield pop-up by Evan Sandmann that was ruled a double, scoring two.

Back-to-back singles in the fourth by Hughes and JD Andreessen (Depew, NY/Lancaster/Campbell) put Monmouth on the board as it trimmed the deficit to 4-1, but DBU responded when Jameson Hannah hit a two-run homer to make it 6-1 in the sixth.

The Hawks rallied in the eighth, led off by Danny Long (Sellersville, PA/Pennridge)'s triple the other way. He scored when John LaRocca (Plainview, NY/St. Dominic) reached on an error, and Andreessen drove in a run with a ground out to trim the Patriot lead to 6-3. The Hawks loaded the bases in the inning, but could not get any closer. DBU tacked on a run in the home half of the eighth.

In the ninth, Long singled and Hughes doubled him home. MU got the tying run to the plate in its final at-bat, trailing 7-4, but couldn't come through with the equalizer.

NOTES AND QUOTES
"We really battled and competed tonight. I'm proud of our team tonight especially due to us not being on a baseball field prior to this trip. Very proud of our guys tonight, definitely some positives to build off. We are looking forward to getting back at it tomorrow. We had the tying run at the plate in the ninth." – Dean Ehehalt

-Ricky Dennis made his second consecutive opening night start, and pitched on opening night for the third time in his career.
-Dennis made his first appearance since March 18, 2017 at George Washington, missing the remainder of the 2017 season with injury.
-James Kelly made his first appearance since April 19, 2016 against Seton Hall.
-Shaine Hughes made his fourth straight opening night start for the Blue and White.
-Pete Papcun started his third opening night in a row, while Danny Long made his second straight at shortstop.
-Dallas Baptist now leads the all-time series 6-0.
-Dallas Baptist is the first ranked team MU played since taking on No. 11 Virginia on March 13, 2017.
-MU opened the season at Dallas Baptist for the second time in four years (2015).
-Dean Ehehalt is now 9-16 on opening night in his Monmouth career, and has won the opener five of the last eight years.
-Monmouth had four players make their collegiate debuts on the night. JD Andreessen started at catcher and Kyle Norman started in center field and both made their Monmouth debuts, while Evan Ferris came on with one out in the eighth and Ryan Steckline pinch hit in the ninth.
-Shaine Hughes carried over a hitting streak of three games from last season, which he extended to four.
-Danny Long extended a hitting streak of four games from the end of last season to five.
-Hughes was the only player in the game with three hits, while Long had two for the Blue and White.
-JD Andreessen picked up his first hit as a Hawk.
-Monmouth tripled twice on the night, with Long and Justin Trochiano each registering a three-bagger.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Monmouth's record is now 1-0 while Dallas Baptist is now 0-1.
-Ricky Dennis allowed four runs on four hits, with three walks and two strikeouts in three innings of work. He took the loss in the opener.
-Kyle Ajjan fanned five in his 2.2 innings, allowing two runs on three hits.
-James Kelly worked a perfect seventh and got an out in the eighth, with the lone baserunner he left aboard when exiting eventually scoring.
-Monmouth was outhit 10-8.
-MD Johnson started for DBU and worked five innings, allowing a run on three hits with five strikeouts to earn the win.
-Hannah drove in three runs for the Patriots, while Evan Sandmann drove in a pair.


UP NEXT
-Monmouth continues its weekend series at Dallas Baptist tomorrow, Saturday February 17, with first pitch scheduled for 2:00 p.m. Eastern.