FARMVILLE, Va. – Fourteen runs combined in the third, fourth and fifth innings sent Monmouth past Longwood 17-3 on Tuesday afternoon. The Hawks piled up a season-high 17 hits to take the first ever meeting between the two teams.
Monmouth (6-11) led 5-3 after taking the lead with a three-run third inning, but a seven-run fourth inning cemented it. Kyle Norman poked a one-run single and Zach Schild tapped a two-run single to take an 8-3 lead. The backbreaker came when Robbie Holmes swatted a bases loaded, two-out triple to deep left-center. Holmes scored on the play when the throw to third went into the dugout to put the Hawks up 12-3.
In the fifth, the Hawks batted around again to bump the lead to 16-3.
Both offenses came out aggressive and jumped on the starting pitchers early. After Monmouth grabbed a 2-0 lead in the top of the first, the Lancers (7-13 overall, 2-1 Big South) answered in their half. With one out,
Grant Keller swatted a ball over the left field fence for a solo home run, his first homer of the season.
Hunter Gilliam followed it up with a triple to center field, and
Nate Blakeney roped a line drive single to left field to drive him in and tie the score at two.
De'Andre Pitts and
Drayven Kowalski both walked to load the bases with two outs, but a popup to second ended the threat.
With the score still 2-2,
Eric Crain led off the bottom of the second with a single.
Jawan McAllister sacrificed him to second, and Crain stole third before Keller knocked him home with a sacrifice fly to right field to put the Lancers up 3-2.
The Lancer bats cooled off from that point on as Monmouth's pitching staff only surrendered one hit in the final seven innings. Regan Dombroski (1-0) earned the win for the Hawks with a nine-strikeout, four-inning performance after coming on in relief to start the fourth inning.
Longwood's pitching staff struck out a season-high 17 batters but surrendered a season-high 17 hits.
Alec Abdalah (0-1) took the loss after giving up five runs on six hits with four strikeouts and a walk.
Bryan Golnick came on in the sixth and set a career high with five strikeouts in three innings of work.
This weekend, the Lancers dive back into conference play and welcome Winthrop to Buddy Bolding Stadium for a three-game series starting on Friday, March 22. First pitch is set for 5 p.m. Friday night.
#GoWood
