BOCA RATON, FL – Phil Stahl homered and the Hawks threatened in the later innings, but the Monmouth University Baseball team was topped in the 2023 season opener at Florida Atlantic University, 6-2 Friday night.
Making his first opening day start,
Alex Barker struck out five in three innings. The Owls plated a run on a sac fly in the first before adding three in the third as part of a two-hit inning to lead 4-0. Monmouth threatened in the sixth, when
James Harmstead flew out deep to center with two aboard, before breaking through in the seventh.
Following three shutout relief innings from
Dante Ciaramella, Stahl led off the seventh with a long home run to straightaway left to make it 4-1. The next three Hawks reached with hits, filling the bases with nobody out to set up a
Brady Mutz sac fly that made it 4-2. MU couldn't get the equalizer across, and FAU plated two two-out runs in the eighth to secure the victory.
NOTES AND QUOTES
"We competed tonight; did what we need to do to have a chance. Their guy was very good and gave us fits early, he is a legit Friday guy in a high-level conference. Dante and
Jake Fraher made some pitches to get out of jams in critical spots. Miller did his job and was a little unlucky; Barker was a little under the weather and we could have gotten him out of that three-run inning in different fashion. Stahl gave us a spark with the homer, we threatened and could not get any closer than 4-2. Denlinger, Trochiano and Sabato had real nice debuts for us offensively. Our defense made some outstanding plays that we are unable to replicate in our practice settings; kudos to them. I liked how we competed and we need to keep understanding the importance of making good baseball plays and decisions. Our guys are excited to get back out there tomorrow." – Head Coach
Dean Ehehalt
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Phil Stahl hit his sixth career home run to plate Monmouth's first run of the season.
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Austin Denlinger had MU's first hit of the season, and notched three hits in his Monmouth debut.
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Alex Barker made his first ever opening day start, striking out five.
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Will Trochiano and
Eric Sabato each made their first starts as Hawks and picked up their first hits.
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Dante Ciaramella threw three shutout bullpen innings.
-Every Hawk in the starting lineup was a junior or older.
NUMBERS CRUNCH
-Each team had seven hits.
-Each team committed one error.
-Barker took the loss with five K's in three innings, allowing three earned runs.
-MU's bullpen allowed two runs in five innings.
-Hunter Cooley got the win for FAU with 6.1 innings, allowing two runs.
UP NEXT
-The teams meet again tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. in Boca Raton, FL.
