The men’s baseball team is currently on a five game winning streak with the addition of this past weekend’s wins over the Lafayette Leopards and sweep over the Quinnipiac Bobcats.
The Hawks opened up their week on Wednesday against non-conference Lafayette. Jon Shippee was deemed starter of the game and pitched a career best 6.1 innings striking out three and allowing two runs off six hits. Replacing Shippee in the seventh was right hander Neil Harm who closed out the game and was awarded his second save of the season. When asked about Shippee’s performance, Head Coach Dean Ehehalt said, “He has thrown three real good games for us. He’s not really conditioned to go nine at this point, but he’s thrown real well.” With this win, Shippee has improved his season record to 3-1.
Shippee and Harm had the support they needed from their offense. Scoring seven runs, the Hawks have finally regained their stamina at the plate. Designated hitter, Tim Bickford, knocked in second baseman Jamie Rosenkranz for the Hawk’s first run. Rosenkranz also accounted for the team’s second run in the bottom of the third. Hitting an infield single to get on base, Rosenkranz moved to second on a balk and then to third on a wild pitch. It was Bickford once more who hit the single needed to get Rosenkranz across home plate. Monmouth then changed the score in the fourth off catcher Tom Augustyniak’s and Rosenkranz’s bats. Augustyniak hit the first pitch he saw for an RBI double scoring center fielder Josh Boyd who got on base after being hit. Rosenkranz followed Augustyniak’s lead by hitting an RBI double as well.
At this point, the Hawks were up 4-2 and needed some insurance runs. Their prayers were answered in the eighth. Starting the inning was shortstop Jon Guida who got on first by an error. Then came Boyd who bunted to get on first and moved Guida to second. Augustyniak was then walked to load the bases for senior left fielder Ed Martin. Martin was awarded with an RBI after getting hit by a pitch. With the bases loaded, Rosenkranz came to the plate and hit an RBI single scoring Boyd. Knocking in the final run was second baseman Jake Gronsky with a single.
For 19 years, Ehehalt has been coaching the Hawks. Up until April 3, Coach Ehehalt had 499 wins while donning the blue and white. After Wednesday’s win, he officially became the most successful coach in Monmouth’s baseball history. He improves his overall record to 521- 473-2 over a span of 21 years of coaching at the collegiate level. Prior to Monmouth, Ehehalt coached the Brooklyn branch of LIU.
Gronsky believes that his coach’s 500th victory is something to get excited about.
“It’s awesome to be a part of it. Five-hundred wins. That is something that does not come around too often in any program, it shows the winning history we have at Monmouth,” Gronsky continues. “It shows the dedication level of Ehehalt. It was great to be part of it. I’m happy for him and I’m happy for the team.”
Coming off this victory, the Hawks prepared themselves for a battle against conference rival Quinnipiac. Ehehalt called upon his ace, junior Pat Light, to open up the series against the Bobcats. Light pitched a whole seven innings, striking out an impressive 10 batters and having only one run marked against him. Freshman Adam Yunginger replaced Light pitching two thirds of the eighth inning, giving up three runs off two hits. Chris McKenna took over for Yunginger and saw only two batters whom he walked. Ehehalt then relied on Joe Loiodice who went 1.1 innings serving only three hits.
Every starter connected with the ball at least once. Martin went 1-for- 3 with three out of the 11 runs, two walks, and one RBI. Rosenkranz went 2-for-4 with two runs, one walk, and an RBI. Gronsky extended his hitting streak to 10 by going 2-for-4 with two hits and two RBI’s. Batting clean-up was third baseman Danny Avella who finally found his swing again and finished the night 3-for-5 with three runs and three RBI’s.
Coming off this victory, Monmouth readily awaited their Friday double header. Throwing the first game was sophomore Andrew McGee while sophomore Stephen Frey was called on for game two.
McGee pitched a complete game while striking out four to earn a victory over the Bobcats, bringing his season record to 3-3. The final score of the game was 4-1 with QU scoring early on in the first. Fortunately, McGee was aided by Guida who hit his first career home run down the left field line in the bottom half of the second. Guida knocked in both Chris Perret and Owen Stewart. In the fifth, Martin scored Boyd for the final run of the game.
Much like game one of the double header, game two also provided QU with an early start on the scoreboard. In the first, the Bobcats scored their leadoff hitter but he would be the only QU batter to cross home plate for the rest of the game. MU retaliated by scoring six runs off of six hits. By the end of the second, the final score was already shown on the scoreboard: 6-1 in MU’s favor. Frey went the distance, striking out four and allowing five hits, earning his fourth win of the season.
While the Hawks were on a four game winning streak, one streak was brought to an end. Up until this point, Gronsky had an 11 game hitting streak. When asked about his current hitting success, Gronsky said, “Well a hitting streak is something I cannot really think about. If I can just keep having good at bats, good team at bats and we keep scoring runs, that’s what the focus needs to be about.”
In the final game of the series, MU had all seven of their runs cross home plate within the first three innings. Fortunately, they were able to hold onto the game and won with a final score of 7-3. Dan Smith started for the Hawks and was awarded his fourth win of the season.
With the offense regaining their strength game by game, Ehehalt explains the secret, “We improved a little bit, we capitalized on some of our mistakes.” So there you have it, the Hawks have found a way to work around their offensive flaws and be able to create a five game winning streak. With this past week, Monmouth has improved their record to 18-12 (9-3 NEC). The Hawks will be hosted by Central Connecticut State for a four game series over the upcoming weekend.
PHOTO COURTESY of MU Photography
