April 11, 2008
Box Score
Staten Island, NY - Monmouth extended its winning streak to 14 games while snapping Wagner's five-game winning streak with a 5-0 victory in game one of this weekend's four-game set between the teams at Richmond County Bank Ballpark. The Hawks move to 16-8 and 5-0 in the Northeast Conference (NEC) while the Seahawks fall to 12-13 and 4-1 in the NEC.
Brad Brach (3-1) was the story of the day, striking out 11 while scattering seven hits and a walk over 9.0 scoreless innings. The righty struck out the side in the second, fourth and ninth innings while picking up his first complete game of the year.
Freshman Seth Boyd (Perth Amboy, NJ / Perth Amboy) went 2-4 while sophomore Vin Avella (Matawan, NJ / CBA) was 1-3 with a walk to lead the Wagner offense.
Monmouth grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the second. Paul Bottigliero led off with a single. He was advanced to third on a Nick Pulsonetti double. Shawn Teters gave the Hawks the early advantage with a sacrifice fly to center.
The Hawks would add another run in the fourth with a two-out rally. Chris Collazo's single up the middle plated Teters, who had doubled in the previous at bat to make it 2-0 Monmouth.
The Green & White would threaten in the bottom part of the frame. Junior Chris Drechsel (Cranford, NJ / Cranford) led off with a single to center. He moved to third on a single to right-center by Avella, who advanced to second on the throw. However, the Seahawks would not be able to capitalize as Brach struck out the next three hitters to quell the Wagner rally.
Pulsonetti pushed the Monmouth lead out to 3-0 with a solo shot to left-center in the top of the sixth.
Wagner would again threaten in the bottom of the frame. Avella drew a two-out walk and freshman Joe Jamison (West Caldwell, NJ / James Caldwell) singled him to second. The Seahawks would strand the pair as Brach induced a grounder to end the inning.
Monmouth put the game out of reach in the eighth with a pair of runs. Pulsonetti tripled to deep-center, scoring Andy Meyers, who had led off the inning with a single. Teters followed with his second sacrifice fly of the game to make it 5-0.
Freshman LHP Jack Rice (Middlesex, NJ / Immaculata) struck out three over 7.2 innings while yielding five runs in falling to 4-1 on the year. Classmate RHP Ian Karlsson (Brooklyn, NY / Xaverian) looked good out of the pen, hurling 1.1 scoreless innings of relief.
Eight different Hawks combined for 13 hits on the day. Pulsonetti led the attack, going 3-4 with two run and two RBI while falling just a single short of the cycle.
The two teams resume their series with a doubleheader tomorrow at 11 am.
