FINAL SCORE
College of Charleston (9-35, 3-20 CAA) – 10
Monmouth (17-30, 9-13 CAA) – 11
 
WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – Sophomore infielder Savannah Simons hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning as the Monmouth University Softball Team rallied to defeat the College of Charleston, 11-10, at MU Softball Park on Saturday afternoon.

Simons's heroics give the Hawks their fifth walk-off win this season and 10^th victory overall at home. The Hawaii native drove in three on the day with run-scoring singles in the first, sixth, and, most importantly, seventh innings to bring her to a team-leading 47 hits and .318 batting average on the year.

Charleston jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first after being held to one run and two hits by Billie Kerwood yesterday. The Hawks would score the next four, with the fourth coming on Mackenzie Bloss's sixth sacrifice fly of the season. Monmouth would not hold the lead for long, however, as a four-run third put the Cougars back ahead, 6-4.

The Cougars would see their lead grow to as large as five runs after a run in the fourth and two in the fifth. Senior Kiley O'Rourke cut into the deficit with a sac fly of her own in the bottom half of the fifth.

The Hawks flipped the script in the sixth when Tessa Thompson hit her second home run of the season – a grand slam to put the Hawks ahead, 10-9. With two outs, and after falling behind 0-2, the sophomore deposited her second homer in as many weekends over the right-field wall to bring home Abby Warner, Bri Lawson, and Bloss.

Kerwood finished the final three frames in the circle and collected the win for Monmouth. Charleston was able to tie the game at 10 when Aniz Roman hit an RBI double as the Cougars were down to their final out. Kerwood would get the next batter to groundout, setting the stage for Simons to win it in the bottom half. Kerwood struck out two, walked two, and allowed an earned run on Roman's lone hit off her.
 
QUOTE
"Happy to see this group fight until the very end. Timely offense was the key to the win. Savannah came through like she always does when we needed her, and Tessa completely changed the game with that big home run.

Dani was a great table-setter for us today, and we did a great job driving her in when she got on. Give a lot of credit to Charleston for giving us a good fight all the way down to the last pitch. I am excited to celebrate Senior Day and go for the sweep tomorrow." – Head Coach Shannon Salsburg

NOTES & NUMBERS
- The Hawks have five walk-off wins this season.
- Dabroski has walked 28 times – tied for second most of any Hawk in a single season.
- It's the second time Dabroski tallied three hits in a game and third with three runs.
- Savannah Simons leads MU with 47 hits in 2024.
- Simons recorded her eighth multi-hit game.
- Thompson is up to 17 RBI on her sophomore campaign.
- O'Rourke tallied her 12^th career RBI.
- Kerwood is now 11-17 in the circle this season.
- MU improves to 10-7 at home.
- The all-time series is tied at three games apiece.
- The Hawks had more hits, 9-8.
- Monmouth left eight runners on base, while Charleston left seven.
 
UP NEXT
The Hawks will go for the sweep on Senior Day on Sunday at noon.