PRINCESS ANNE, MD – Monmouth University Baseball (3-9) split a pair of games to wrap up the Maryland Eastern Shore Tournament on Sunday, falling to Lehigh University (4-5) in the continuation of Friday's game, 8-2 before topping UMES (3-13) 11-3 to wrap up the weekend with a pair of victories.

In the continuation of Friday's game, which picked up in the fifth inning with Lehigh up 1-0 on a Tony Gallo home run, MU allowed six runs in the bottom of the fifth to allow the Mountain Hawks to go up 7-0. Ryan Malloy hit a two-run homer in the frame for LU. Malloy homered again in the seventh to make it 8-0 before the Blue and White plated a pair in the eighth, doing so on RBI singles from Zach Schild (Lincroft, NJ/Middletown South) and Clay Koniencki (Schwenksville, PA/Malvern Prep) but that was all MU would score, falling 8-2.

The Hawks completed the weekend by taking on host UMES, and the Blue and White jumped out to a 6-0 lead including three runs in the opening inning. Johnny Zega (Lincroft, NJ/Middletown South) drove in a run with a base hit before Schild followed with a run-scoring knock of his own, and freshman Robbie Holmes (Bernardsville, NJ/Bernards) capped the scoring with a sac fly. Holmes added a two-run single in the third to extend it to 5-0 after Schild doubled.

While James Kelly (Oceanport, NJ/Shore Regional) was working through six solid innings, MU allowed a single run in the sixth before getting it back on a seventh-inning fielder's choice. Kyle Norman (Ellicott City, MD/Good Counsel/Buffalo) knocked through a two-run single in the eighth as part of a three-run inning, and Danny Long (Sellersville, PA/Pennridge) drove in the final run as MU took the final game of the weekend, 11-3.

NOTES AND QUOTES
"We played well over the course of the weekend. We had a little difficulty getting out of the fifth, but we kept battling. Rob Hensey's performance before the rains came in the suspended game was very impressive. I was very encouraged with his outing. Definitely something to build off of." – Head Coach Dean Ehehalt on Game 1 vs. Lehigh

"We bounced back in the second game. It was nice way to finish the weekend. James threw well, he pounded the strike zone and induced a bunch of ground balls. Offensively, it was nice to see us breakout of the little funk we have been in. We started the UMES game with five straight quality at bats and it enabled us to get out to an early lead. We manufactured some more later in the game.  We received contributions from everyone today which is always a boost." – Ehehalt on Game 2 vs. UMES

-Monmouth posts its first winning weekend of the season, taking a pair from UMES
-Robbie Holmes drove in three runs in a game for the first time in his career.
-JD Andreessen had multiple hits in both games, and has now hit in nine of 12 games this year.
-Johnny Zega also has multi-hit games in each contest, and has now hit in seven games in a row.
-Evan Ferris made his debut in the first game.
-Kyle Norman now has hits in four in a row, and drove in three runs in the second game, his first multi-RBI game of the year.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-MU was outhit by Lehigh in the first game, 10-8.
-The Hawks outhit UMES in the second game, 14-13.
-Before the rain on Friday, freshman Rob Hensey fired four effective innings, allowing a run on three hits with four K's, taking the loss.
-James Kelly allowed just one run in six innings, fanning four and walking zero in collecting his first win of the year.
-Michael Dimino fired a scoreless ninth inning vs. UMES.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth takes on Rutgers on Wednesday afternoon on the road at 3:00 p.m.