WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – Monmouth University Baseball (18-25-1, 6-9) scored five times in the fourth inning and got stellar pitching from Regan Dombroski (Manasquan, NJ/Wall) and Nick Houghton (Hamilton, NJ/Nottingham), beating Manhattan College (17-27, 10-5) 5-2 on Sunday afternoon. Kyle Norman (Ellicott City, MD/Good Counsel/Buffalo) had two hits for MU.

Manhattan took the early 2-0 lead thanks to a pair of third-inning runs, with consecutive doubles from Shawn Blake and Nick Cimillo plating the two. MU came back to hang up a big number in the fourth, with Clay Koniencki (Schwenksville, PA/Malvern Prep) getting the Hawks on the board after doubling and coming around on a wild pitch. JP Walsh (Spring Brook Township, PA/North Pocono) ripped a single to left to tie the game ahead of Matt Graber's (Newton, MA/Dexter) two-run double to the wall in left, giving the Hawks a 4-2 lead. Colin McCreary (Clarks Summit, PA/Abington Heights) capped the five run, five-hit inning with a single back up the middle to add to the lead, making it 5-2.

Dombroski settled in to strike out seven, and Houghton pitched out of any trouble he found himself in to earn his first career save, striking out six. Houghton's biggest pitch came in the eighth, when Manhattan put runners at second and third and brought the tying run to the plate before he fanned Jake Knop to end the inning.

NOTES AND QUOTES
"We needed a big effort from somebody and Regan got the ball and did a great job for us. He hasn't had many starts in his career and he was very effective today. He had a bend but don't break mentality which really helped us out early and hopefully he can grow from this and give us more quality starts. Nick Houghton has made so much progress and developed a third pitch and its made his fastball and slider much more effective. He's a guy who wants the ball in crunch time and he was excellent today, he loves to compete." – Head Coach Dean Ehehalt on today's pitching

"We've been struggling offensively, especially this weekend so to put five up was great. Clay's been our guy all year and he led off that inning with a double and we had a bunch of quality at bats after that, none bigger than Graber's. He's been working so hard and so has JP, and McCreary with the exclamation point. We scored in several different ways which was encouraging." – Ehehalt on the big fourth inning

-Regan Dombroski made his first start since April 19, 2017 against Lafayette, and just the second of his career.
-Dombroski's five innings tied a career high, and his seven strikeouts was the second most in a game of his career.
-Nick Houghtion picked up his first career save.
-Houghton's six strikeouts tied a career high, set in his last outing at Villanova.
-Houghton also tied his career high with four innings pitch, and has not allowed an earned run in his last five outings.
-Kyle Norman posted his 15^th multi-hit game of the season.
-Matt Graber drove in multiple runs for the third time this year.
-Seven of nine Hawks to start had a hit.
-Monmouth celebrated Senior Day before the game, honoring the 10 MU seniors in their final weekend home game.

NUMBERS CRUNCH
-MU was outhit 11-8.
-Dombroski earned his third win with five effective innings, fanning seven and walking one with two runs allowed.
-Houghton fired four scoreless innings to pick up the save.
-Ryan Takacs allowed all five runs to take the loss for Manhattan.
-Jonathan Barditch and Nick Cimillo had three hits apiece for the Jaspers.

UP NEXT
-Monmouth is back in action on Saturday with a doubleheader scheduled at Canisius.