STATEN ISLAND, NY – Kyle Norman's (Ellicott City, MD/Good Counsel/Buffalo) single between shortstop and third gave Monmouth a dramatic 5-4 win over Siena in the Hawks' first game of the MAAC Tournament Wednesday. MU trailed throughout, rallying to tie in the seventh before taking leads in the eighth and ninth. With the victory, MU moves into the winner's bracket of the conference tournament.

The Hawks opened the ninth with a pair of hustle plays as JP Walsh (Spring Brook Township, PA/North Pocono) beat out an infield single back up the middle and Justin Trochiano (Morganville, NJ/Marlboro) reached on a muffed ball on a sacrifice bunt attempt. Shaine Hughes (Sewell, NJ/Washington Township) flew out deep to center to move Walsh to third before Norman's base hit won it.

In a tie game in the eighth, Zach Schild (Lincroft, NJ/Middletown South) launched his first career home run to give the Hawks their first lead, hitting it into the trees beyond the left field wall to make it 4-3. Siena rallied in the ninth after a leadoff single and a sacrifice bunt to tie the game on an error.

Monmouth tied the game in the seventh when Hughes reached on an errant throw, allowing Walsh to come in with the tying run. MU had cut it to one on Johnny Zega's (Lincroft, NJ/Middletown South) RBI fielder's choice in the sixth. Siena had taken a 3-1 lead in the sixth on Dan Lowndes RBI single, answering Johnny Zega's RBI single in the fourth that got MU on the board.

Siena grabbed a pair of runs to take an early 2-0 lead in the second, plating one on a Dan Lowndes RBI single back up the middle. The second run scored on a wild pitch to the deep backstop, allowing Jonathan Crimmin to come in for the Saints.

NOTES AND QUOTES
"We had to be resilient today or we wouldn't have won. They battled us really well and their guy was forcing us to swing at some bad pitches. As the game went on we did what we had to do to stay in the game before Zach hit the big home run and then Norman had a great at bat. Good things happen when you're persistent so I'm happy for our guys." – Dean Ehehalt

"I was just trying to keep it simple. That guy has a lot of pitches that he can throw for strikes, I just wanted to get a good pitch and put a good swing on it." –Kyle Norman


-Monmouth posted its first walk-off win in a conference tournament since May 22, 2014 against Manhattan at First Energy Park in Lakewood, NJ on Kyle Perry's infield single.
-MU has now won four games via the walk-off this season.
-The Hawks have won 14 of 15 games against MAAC competition.
-Johnny Zega posted his third multi-RBI game of the season.
-MU pitching struck out 10 batters, and are now 12 away from the MU single-season record.
-Dan Klepchick struck out seven batters for the seventh time this season, and second game in a row with exactly seven.
-Austin Counsellor is the first MU reliever with four wins since Andrew McGee in 2011 (5).
-MU scored a single run in each of the last four innings.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Six Hawks contributed to Monmouth's seven hits.
-MU is now 29-23 on the season.
-Mike Brambilla pitched to one batter, striking out Joe Drpich to end the seventh.
-Brendan White took his ninth loss for Siena.
-MU held the top three in Siena's order without a hit.
-Monmouth was outhit 10-7.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth moves to the winner's bracket and will play on Friday at noon against an opponent yet to be determined.