FINAL SCORE
Stony Brook 8 (23-27, 9-16 CAA)
Monmouth 7 (24-28, 10-15 CAA)
11 Innings
 
STONY BROOK, NY – The Monmouth University baseball team rallied twice to force extra innings but ultimately fell 8-7 in 11 innings to Stony Brook University in Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) action on Thursday.
 
Stony Brook jumped on the Hawks for two runs in the first and one in the second for the early 3-0 advantage. 
 
Monmouth got one of those runs back in the top of the third as Chris Walsh led off with a single and came around to score on Jay Bant's RBI double. Bant's double was the 100th hit of his career.
 
Stony Brook added two runs in the fourth and one in the sixth and pushed its lead to 6-1.
 
The Hawks began their comeback in the top of the seventh. Monmouth opened the frame with five straight hits en route to scoring five runs in the inning. Casey Caufield picked up his 200th career hit before Walsh had an RBI single and Chris Andrews plated two with his double. 
 
Harry Padden's groundout pulled the Hawks to within one and Jake Howlett delivered a big two-out double, which tied the game at 6-6. 
 
Stony Brook went back on top 7-6 on an bases loaded walk with two outs in the bottom of the eighth.
 
Monmouth once again had the answer, this time in the top of the ninth. The Hawks loaded the bases on three walks with one out. Shane Dux lifted a sac fly to left that scored pinch runner Aidan Watson. 
 
After a scoreless bottom of the ninth, the two teams went to extra innings. The Hawks and Derek Benzinger were able to work around a pair of one-out walks in the bottom of the 10th.
 
Erik Paulsen's RBI single in the bottom of the 11th gave Stony Brook an 8-7 win. 

NOTES 
- Stony Brook leads the all-time series with the Hawks 7-3 after Thursday's game. The loss to the Seawolves snapped a two-game winning streak for the Hawks in the series.
- Monmouth was playing extra innings for the second straight games and sixth time this season. It's the most extra inning games by a Monmouth squad since the 2019 team played eight extra inning games. 
- Casey Caufield's seventh inning single gave him 200 for his career. He's the 17th player in program history and first since Shaine Hughes in 2018 to reach the mark. 
- Jay Bant's third inning double was the 100th hit of his career. He's the second Hawk to reach the mark and fourth on the current roster to go over 100 hits for a career (Casey Caufield, Harry Padden, Chris Andrews). 

NUMBERS CRUNCH
- Chris Walsh and Chris Andrews led the Hawks with three hits apiece in the contest. For Walsh it was his 15th multi-hit game of the season and the three hits matched his season-high. It was Andrews' 12th multi-hit game of the season. 
- Casey Caufield finished with two hits and now has recorded multiple hits in three straight games and a team-leading 22 times this year.
- Jay Bant's double was his team-leading 16th of the season. 
- Matthew Canizares earned the win for Stony Brook after going three innings and allowing just one baserunner on a walk. 
- Derek Benzinger suffered the loss for the Hawks after giving up one run on four hits in two plus innings of work. 

NEXT UP
The Hawks and Seawolves play the middle game of their series on Friday, May 16 at 1 p.m.