R yan Mealy, a true freshman right-hander coming out of upstate New York, threw his first complete game shutout of his college career to help the Monmouth Hawks take down the North Carolina A&T Aggies at the War Memorial Stadium in Greensboro, North Carolina this past Sunday in a 13-0 win. Mealy has put together a dazzling debut season, building just a 3.15 ERA through 40 innings pitched. He has managed to walk just six hitters while striking out 33. Mealy flexed his young skills on the mound in the bottom of the first and continued to do so through the rest of the game. Mealy was perfect through the first three innings until the fourth when the Aggie’s Bruce Wyche, freshman right fielder, singled through the left side. Mealy allowed just six total runs across his nine innings, also forcing the Aggies to strand five runners on the bases. He also managed to put up 10 strikeouts, the most that any Monmouth pitcher in a single game this season. His shutout pushed him to 4-0 on the season.
Mealy’s spectacular performance was accompanied by a few other great accomplishments for the Hawks.
In the top of the ninth, Monmouth batted around, pouring on seven more runs to extend their lead to the final 13-0 score. This included a homerun from Wyatt Hunt, sophomore third basemen. This was Hunt’s first homerun in his college career, as well as the third homerun of the game. The other two came from Jay Bant, senior designated hitter, and Chris Walsh, sophomore left fielder. Bant’s homer was his fifth of the year and is now leading the Hawks in homeruns. He also passed the 40 RBI threshold, becoming the first Hawk to do so since the 2022 season. Casey Caufield, graduate second basemen, and Harry Padden, graduate center fielder, both extended their on-base streaks. Caufield to 31 and Padden to 16.
The Hawks have returned home and will face Rutgers Tuesday Apr. 15 before facing Elon in a three game CAA series April 18 through April 20.
