Box score
WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ—Monmouth scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning Sunday afternoon to defeat NJIT, 6-3, after the Highlanders had come back from a three-run deficit to tie the score in the last of a three-game weekend series between the teams.
Monmouth, which has won four of the last five Northeast Conference regular season championships, including the last two, swept the series from the young Highlanders, but the Hawks' third win did not come easily.
The first two games were played in Newark and Monmouth got combined three-hit shutouts each time to win both comfortably. The series moved to the Jersey Shore on Sunday and the Highlanders outhit the Hawks, 12-8, making for the most competitive of the three games.
Monmouth's starting pitcher for the finale, Nick Meyers, a senior left-hander, extended the shutout mastery through the first three innings of the finale, although he surrendered five hits in the process.
The Hawks jumped out on top with a three-run bottom of the third, but NJIT finally broke through with two runs in the fourth and then tied the game in the sixth on a leadoff home run, the first of his career, for sophomore 3B John Berner, who also doubled in the game.
However, Monmouth seized the win with three runs on three hits against three NJIT pitchers in the bottom of the eighth inning.
The Hawks got what proved to be the game-winning run when CF Josh Boyd singled with one out to bring home 3B Jamie Rosenkranz to make the score 4-3. Rosenkranz had singled leading off the inning.
Monmouth 2B Chris Collazo was the only Hawk with more than one hit, going 2-for-3, with one run scored and one batted in. Nick Pulsonetti, the left fielder who was first-team all-NEC as a freshman in 2008, had one hit, but it was the three-run homer in the bottom of the third inning. He was walked intentionally three times after hitting the home run.
NJIT got three hits apiece from Berner and from SS Vincent Del Vecchio. Moreno had two hits and another freshman, C John Bouck, drove in two of NJIT's runs with a single after Moreno had singled and Berner had doubled opening the fourth inning.
Relievers got the pitching decision for both teams. The winner was Monmouth's junior right-hander Ryan Buch (2-2), who allowed four hits and a run, with eight strikeouts over the last five innings.
Meyers, the starter for the Hawks, allowed two runs on eight hits through the first four innings.
The losing pitcher for NJIT was freshman RHP Reid Okita, who fell to 0-2. Okita, who had worked two perfect innings on Saturday, kept Monmouth off the scoreboard for two more innings on Sunday before running into trouble in the bottom of the eighth.
The starting pitcher for NJIT was freshman RHP Dan Moreno, who started for the first time after three consecutive strong relief outings over the last two weeks. He had earned the start against Monmouth by pitching five scoreless innings in a 14-inning loss to Northeastern on March 15, two scoreless innings against North Dakota State on March 21 and then three innings, with one run allowed, in a 10-inning loss to Lehigh on March 25.
On Sunday, Moreno became the most effective of the pitchers who have auditioned for NJIT's fourth-starter spot in 2009, holding Monmouth to three runs, all on the Pulsonetti home run in the third inning. Moreno's line was: 5 innings, 4 hits, 3 runs, 4 walks and 2 strikeouts.
Okita pitched 2.1 innings, allowing three hits and two runs. Junior RHP Chris Parenti was charged with Monmouth's sixth run and senior LHP Matt Melody got the last two outs.
After Monmouth took its 3-0 lead, NJIT got two runs back on Bouck's two-run single in the fourth. After a scoreless fifth, Berner tied the score with his first college home run as the leadoff man in the sixth.
With the score tied, Monmouth left the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning and NJIT stranded two in the top of the eighth, as Moreno and Berner opened the frame with singles in front of a sacrifice bunt by Thomas Farina before Monmouth's Buch, an all-conference honoree in each of his first two seasons, escaped the jam with a lineout to center field and a strikeout.
Rosenkranz singled through the left side to open the decisive bottom of the eighth inning and then was sacrificed over to second on a bunt. It was Monmouth's third successful sac of the day and the execution was rewarded when Boyd singled to right field, driving in Rosenkranz with the fourth run.
Boyd, who went to second on the throw, later scored on Collazo's single. After that, Jacob and Collazo pulled off a double steal and SS Ryan Terry brought home Monmouth's sixth run with a sacrifice fly.
Buch finished off the win by retiring NJIT in order in the ninth inning.
The Highlanders will be back home on Wednesday for a 4 pm game at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium against Lafayette.
