The Fairleigh Dickinson baseball team dropped game one of a four-game series Friday afternoon against Garden State and NEC-rival Monmouth, 8-5, in West Long Branch, NJ. The Hawks jumped out to a 4-0 after two innings and were able to hold on the rest of the way. The loss eliminates the Knights from NEC Tournament contention. With the victory, the Hawks improve to 21-23 (14-15 NEC) on the season, while the Knights fall to 14-37 (9-20 NEC) overall.
The Hawks got off to a quick start as Bobby Dombrowski blasted a three-run homer to give the home team an early 3-0 lead.
The lead expanded to 4-0 in the second on an RBI single by Mike Casale.
After Knights' starter Mike Strachman held Monmouth scoreless over the next three innings, Dombrowski promptly led off the sixth with his second round-tripper of the game, a solo shot giving the Hawks a 5-0.
The Knights showed signs of life in the seventh as they scored two runs to cut the deficit to 5-2. Sophomore JT Sherba (Binghamton, NY/Binghamton) delivered a two-run double to center field, plating fellow classmates Mike Eliasen (Swedesboro, NJ/Gloucester Catholic) and Scott Morrison (Coral Springs, FL/J.P. Taravella).
In the bottom half of the seventh, the Hawks hit their third home run of the day as Nick Pulsonetti hit a three-run bomb over the center field fence to give Monmouth an 8-2 advantage.
Still down by six in the ninth, the Knights managed to stage a mini-comeback as they scored three times to make the final score 8-5. Junior DJ Robinson (Woodbury, NJ/Gloucester Catholic) singled home sophomore Matt Holsman (Coral Springs, FL/Stoneman Douglas) for the first run. Junior Joe Martino (Westbury, NY/W.T. Clarke) was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to drive home junior Steven LaForge (Garfield, NJ/St. Mary) for the second run. Junior Brian Dillon (Sarasota, FL/Cardinal Mooney) scored the third run on sophomore Ryan Kresky (Freehold, NJ/Freehold)'s RBI groundout.
Strachman (2-7), making his final career start for the Knights on the mound, was tagged with the loss. He gave up eight runs, seven earned, on nine hits over 6.1 innings of work. He did not walk or strike out a batter. Junior Chris Theordor (Staten Island, NY/Staten Island Tech) shut down the Hawks over the final 1.2 innings.
Nick Meyers picked up the win for the Hawks on the hill. He limited the Knights to two runs, one earned, on nine hits over 7.2 innings. He walked three and struck out four.
LaForge, Robinson and Kresky each had two hits for the Knights. As a team, the Knights collected 11 hits.
Casale had three of the nine Monmouth hits to pace the Hawks offensively. Monmouth was also able to take advantage of four errors by the Knights.
The two teams return to action tomorrow for a doubleheader. Both games will be seven innings. First pitch for game one is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. in West Long Branch, NJ.
