The Monmouth University Men’s Baseball team takes the road as they verse Mercer University
on Feb. 23-25. Before these games against Mercer, the Hawks traveled to face Army on Feb. 16, in a double hitter with Penn State and Sunday, Feb. 18, where they unfortunately lost. They then traveled to Penn State where, on Feb. 16, the battle was long as they lost 5-6 in the tenth inning. On the flip side, the next day, Saturday, Feb. 17, Monmouth won against Penn State in a victory of 10-3.
In this game against Penn State, center #14, outfielder Harry Padden, hit for the cycle to help the team achieve their first win of the season with a 10-3 triumph. The Hawks jumped right back into the fight as they plated their first run. Outfielder #10 Eric Sabato singled with two outs on the left side, bringing home #22 Joey Ventresca.
Infielder #13 Jay Bant hit the next pitch of the game over the right field fence for a three-run home run, putting the Hawks ahead with a score of 4-0 after the first inning. Penn State responded with two in the bottom of the first, but the Hawks scored three times in the top of the third to expand their lead to 7-2. Padden hit an RBI double in the inning, while infielder #2 Matt Scrivanic added an RBI single in his second at-bat of the season.
While both teams put runs on the board in the sixth, Padden transitioned to the seventh with an RBI triple, leading to a score of 9-3. After a homerun from #14 off the top of the ninth, the Hawks were able to close with 10-3 on Feb. 17. Padden is the first Hawk in at least 31 years to hit for the cycle in a game. He achieved this accomplishment with a single in the second, a double in the third, a triple in the seventh, and a home run in the ninth.
Additionally, the Monmouth Hawks unfortunately lost to Mercer University in all three games. On Friday, Feb. 23, the Hawks traveled to Georgia where this was their first-ever meeting. It was a close game of 5-6. #8 Phil Stahl helped put Monmouth on the board at the top of the first. Stahl’s sac fly to right drove in #10 Eric Sabato for the game’s opening run. Mercer’s senior #2 Antonio Brown hit a two-run home ball in the bottom of the first inning to give the Bears a 2-1 lead. Stahl tied the game at 2-2, which he later then gave the Hawks the lead of 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth. Mercer then tied the game with a single run in the bottom of the fifth, which the Bears later turned into 6-3 in the bottom of the seventh.
Three consecutive singles at the top of the eighth brought Monmouth within two, 6-4. Infielder #1 Casey Caufield’s base hit plated senior #9 Chris Andrews, earning him an RBI. After Mercer got the first out of the inning, infielder #5 Austin Denlinger hit an RBI groundout that scored #29 Dylan Perry, making the score 6-5. This was Perry’s first multi-hit game of his Monmouth career. Monmouth had a season-high 15 hits, outhitting Mercer 15-7. The Hawks suffered a similar fate over the next two days as they lost against Mercer 7-9 on Feb. 24 and 1-10 on Feb. 25.
The Hawks will travel to Baltimore where they will play in a double hitter against Rider and University of Maryland, Baltimore Country (UMBC) on Saturday, Mar. 2, and they will verse UMBC again on Sunday, Mar. 3.
