The Monmouth University baseball team (10-13, 1-0 MAAC) defeated Iona College (0-21, 0-4 MAAC) 9-3 in the Hawks’ MAAC opener on Friday.
The MU victory was fueled by an explosive seventh inning at the plate, kicked off by a go-ahead homer by Dixon Black. Trey Dombroski and Stephen Aldrich struck out a combined 15 Iona hitters on the outing.
After the Gaels jumped out to a two-run lead in the first frame, Dombroski got rolling from the mound, striking out 10 and shutting out Iona through the remainder of his six innings. Monmouth would notch a couple runs of their own in the second, evening the game up at two on a sacrifice fly from Black.
Entering the seventh, Black tanked a 3-1 pitch into left field, giving the Hawks their first lead of the day and kickstarting a seven-run inning as MU began to bury the Gaels. Casey Caufield capped the scoring inning with an RBI of his own to center field, putting the Hawks ahead 9-2.
Aldrich would take the mound in the seventh, where he’d allow just one late run on his way to striking out five Gaels in his three innings to secure the win.
Monmouth’s baseball team (11-13, 2-0 MAAC) notched another victory over Iona (0-23, 0-5 MAAC) on Saturday when Colin McCreary worked his way to a bases-loaded walk to give MU the win, 6-5.
The third inning saw Iona secure two runs on a two-out single by Will Jennings, a lead that would be extended to four in the fifth on a two-run double from Nick Forney. MU began their come from behind performance in the seventh.
Iona would take the lead again, 5-4, in the top of the ninth behind another Forney RBI, but Monmouth would go on to draw five consecutive walks in the bottom half, bringing two runs home to give them a late 6-5 victory.
Jay Bant drove home the leading run for Monmouth University Baseball (12-13, 3-0 MAAC) in the eighth inning before JD Greeley finalized the MU sweep of Iona College (0-23, 0-6 MAAC) from the mound on Sunday, 6-4. Monmouth’s Rob Hensey contributed a career-high 12 strikeouts for the Hawks on the mound.
The Gaels got out to an early two-run lead in the first after Brad Polinsky doubled early, but the Hawks evened the contest at two in the second inning courtesy of a two-run drive to the wall by Brady Mutz.
Freshman Andrew Schmid hit a liner up the middle in his first career start to bring Mutz home and give the Hawks the 3-2 advantage. A solo homer from James Harmstead in the fifth extended the MU lead to 4-2.
Iona managed to cut the deficit to one in the sixth, and tied the game up 4-4 in the top of the eighth. Leading off the bottom of the eighth, Schmid was hit by a pitch and advanced by a sacrifice bunt and an infield single. Bant would drive one out to right center to bring him home and put the Hawks up one, before Harmstead drove home a run on a single of his own to increase the lead to 6-4.
Greeley retired the remaining hitters in the ninth with runners in scoring position to secure the victory for Monmouth.
The Monmouth University softball team (5-24, 0-2 MAAC) kicked off their conference play this Saturday against Iona College (10-13, 2-0 MAAC), dropping the double header on their home field.
In the first contest, Iona came out of the gates with some fireworks, jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning on three homers. Monmouth would secure just one hit, which was a single by Torraca. She would go on to steal her sixth base of the season, a team-high, but the Hawks couldn’t bring her home.
Billie Kerwood recorded ten strikeouts, pitching 5.2 relief innings.
In the second contest of the day, Monmouth and Iona found themselves in a defensive stalemate through six innings. With no score, Iona hit their lone homer of the game to give them enough to power past the Hawks for a second victory.
Kylie Gletow pitched a complete game, allowing just four hits on two strikeouts and two walks. Despite ten hits in their offensive efforts, MU was held scoreless in the second contest, completing Iona’s away sweep in the MAAC opening weekend.
Up next for both teams are a set of home games against Niagara University. The baseball team will face the Purple Eagles on Friday at 3 pm and the softball team will face them on Saturday at 12 pm.
