Baseball easily destroys inept Monmouth team

With the tie scored, 4-4, in the bottom of the sixth inning in yesterday's baseball game, Monmouth head coach Dean Ehehalt took out his starting pitcher, Joe Cummings, in favor of another lefthander, Gregg Petillo. That was the beginning of the end for the Hawks.

A parade of batters crossed the plate; in fact, every Princeton batter got on base and scored a run in the inning. Senior catcher Tim Lahey provided the big heroics in the inning, recording his team-leading 10th home run of the season — a grand slam.

Senior right fielder Mark Grayson got things going with a single down the leftfield line. Then senior Mike Chernoff hit a ball back to Petillo, who committed an error, putting Grayson on third base and Chernoff on second. The next hitter, junior designated hitter Eric Fitzgerald, smoked a triple to left center field, driving both of them home. Junior second baseman Steve Young then knocked Fitzgerald in with a single through the right side of the infield. Young then advanced to second on a single by sophomore center fielder B.J. Szymanski.

So much for Petillo, who left after giving up three runs without even recording an out. Ehehalt yanked Petillo and brought in Kevin Schneider, the third freshman hurler.

Schneider did not do any better than Petillo, though. With Szymanski and Young on first and second, respectively, Schneider gave up a single to senior third baseman Jon Miller, loading the bases.

Down 7-4, Schneider stood on the mound when mighty Lahey came to bat. In one swing of his bat, the Tiger catcher brought home four more runs for Princeton, widening the gap and pulling the game out of reach, 11-4.

The woes did not end for Schneider, though. He hit the next batter, and the man following reached on a fielding error by the shortstop. That put every Princeton batter on base for the inning. Mercifully for Monmouth, Grayson, the next batter, popped out to right field, giving Schneider his first out. It was also his last.

Three more batters reached base safely and two more scored before Ehehalt tried his fourth pitcher, Cipriano Apicelli, who is not even listed as a pitcher on the team roster. Apicelli only allowed one extra run and was able to record two outs, one of them on a thrilling play at the plate from first baseman Evan Clancy to catcher Mike Hussa, but the score remained 14-4.

Monmouth mounted a comeback attempt in the top of the eighth inning, scoring five runs on only two hits. Sophomore southpaw Worth Lumry gave up all five runs, along with three walks and a hit batsman. Nonetheless, sophomore pitcher Mike Sullivan came in to shut the door and struck out the side in the ninth, securing the 14-9 win.