WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. -- Monmouth used a five-run sixth inning to come from behind
and defeat the Princeton baseball team 11-8 on
Tuesday afternoon at the Monmouth Baseball Field. The game was delayed for an
hour after three innings because of rain before resuming action and completing the game.
Princeton jumped ahead with
two runs in the second inning. After sophomore Jack Murphy led off with a walk,
he scored when sophomore Jon Broscious doubled over the head of the Monmouth
right fielder. Broscious went to second on a walk and came around to score when
freshman Matt Connor singled to left.
Monmouth got those two runs back and added another to go
ahead 3-2 after two full innings of play. The first two runs came when John
Dennis placed a double on the right field line and he scored on Ryan Terry's
sac fly.
Princeton answered right
back with three more runs in the third inning. Junior Dan DeGeorge hit an
infield single, junior Adrian Turnham walked and senior Spencer Lucian singled
to load the bases. DeGeorge scored from third on senior Micah Kaplan's sac fly,
then Turnham came in to score on an RBI-single from Broscious, his second
run-scoring hit of the game. The final run came when Lucian scored on a wild
pitch.
The back-and-forth scoring continued in the bottom of the
third inning as Monmouth added two more runs. First, Nick Pulsonetti scored
Paul Bottigliero on a double to the gap in left center, and then Chris Collazo
scored Pulsonetti with a single up the middle.
Just as Princeton recorded
the final out of the third inning, the sky opened up and it started to rain.
The field was covered with the tarp as both teams waited out a rain delay that
lasted just over an hour.
Princeton picked up where
it left off in the fourth inning with three runs on just one hit to go ahead
8-5. Connor and junior Derek Beckman began the innings with walks. DeGeorge the
reached on an error on a sac bunt, which allowed Connor to score and put
Beckman and himself on third and second. Beckman then scored on a Turnham
groundout and DeGeorge scored on a Lucian single.
Monmouth got a run back in the bottom of the fourth on a
Pulsonetti sac fly to trim the Tiger lead to 8-6 after four full innings. The
Hawks then moved within a run when Andy Meyers led off the sixth inning with a
solo home run just inside the right field foul pole and went ahead two batters
later when Pulsonetti hit a two-run homer to right center field and added two
runs on a Dennis two-run single to lead 11-8 after six.
Four Tiger pitchers pitched two innings each in the game. Freshman
Matt Grabowski suffered the loss, while Monmouth's Tim Ballard, who pitched five
innings in relief got the win.
The loss drops Princeton to
10-12 this season. The Tigers return to action this weekend with Ivy League
games at Yale and Brown.
