By Tony Graham
@tonygsports

LAKEWOOD - It wasn't exactly good timing when the rain arrived in earnest Friday afternoon and the tarp was brought onto the field during the seventh inning of Monmouth University's Northeast Conference Tournament baseball game at FirstEnergy Park.
The third-seeded Hawks, trailing top-seeded Bryant by 10 runs, were relegated to sitting around for three hours and 34 minutes until the 11-1 defeat that ended Monmouth's season could be completed.
Despite the lopsided score when play was halted Ralph Ventre, NEC Director of Communications and the NEC administrator on site, said NCAA Baseball Tournament rules mandated all nine innings be played.
"I think we went through every single stage of depression possible there,'' Monmouth senior first baseman Owen Stewart (St. Rose) said.
"I know I did at least, and the seniors did,'' Stewart said. "That's quite a last game to have to sit around down 10 and get your butt whupped for three hours.
"'We just kind of hung out in a back room they had set aside for us,'' Stewart said. "After a little while we kind of started to loosen up a little bit and when we came back out on the field for the last three innings we were much looser than we were at any point during the game.''
Monmouth didn't hit in the 2013 NECs and thus didn't win a game in the double elimination event.
The Hawks (30-24-1), who lost Thursday to second seeded Sacred Heart 7-1, batted just .159 over their NEC games.
During the season Stewart led a Monmouth attack that batted an NEC best .291.
But Friday it was stopped cold again by Bryant by senior right-hander Craig Schlitter (10-3) and reliever Jonathan Cohen. It had been checked on six hits Thursday by Troy Scribner of the two-time defending NEC champion Pioneers.
Friday A.J. Zarozny, NEC Player of the Year Kevin Brown, and John Mullen each had three of the 15 hits by Bryant (41-16-1) off Monmouth freshman starter Frank Trimarco (5-2) and four relievers.
Monmouth's NEC defeats not withstanding the Hawks, without a true long ball threat after a season ending injury to returning home run and RBI leader Danny Avella (CBA), made the most of what they had.
They parlayed solid pitching and defense into a third consecutive 30-win season, their ninth coach under coach Dean Ehehalt.
"A bad ending to a pretty good season, considering all the factors,'' Ehehalt said. "We had a lot of injuries. I don't think one time anybody complained about anything.''
It's hoped Avella and redshirt freshman slugger Tyler Saito (Manasquan), who sat out the season with a high school football injury, will be ready to go in 2014.
With Monmouth bound for the MAAC in 2013-14 he leaves as the current the winningest coach in NEC history (549-478-3).
"We settled in during the season nicely and we had some good play,'' Ehehalt said. "At the end of the season those guys just ran out of a little bit of gas.''
Monmouth qualified for the NECs for the seventh-straight year and a league-best 17th time.
Monmouth's best shot to stay close Friday occured in the third inning. Trailing 2-0 it loaded the bases with one out on two walks and a hit batter. But the threat resulted in just an RBI infield hit by Jake Gronsky.
Ehehalt said next spring Monmouth returns 2013 NEC Pitcher of the Year Andy McGee (8-2) and most of its key arms, and position-wise loses mainly Stewart and senior third baseman Chris Perret.
"We return a lot of experience next year,'' Stewart said. "A lot of good guys, should have another good season.''
tonygsports@aol.com

""It's still an ongoing information session. Hopefully it'll be finished in June.  The zoning board was there, they asked a bunch of questions. We still have a couple  of people that need to testify about some other things. It's moving along. ''

By Tony Graham
@tonygsports

LAKEWOOD - Early in the second inning Thursday Monmouth University baseball coach Dean Ehehalt walked to the mound hoping to settle down junior left-hander Andy McGee, the 2013 Northeast Conference Pitcher of the Year.
It didn't happen until the inning had ended and Sacred Heart had scored five runs in an NEC Tournament opening round game at FirstEnergy Park.
That was more than enough for Sacred Heart senior Troy Scribner (5-2). The right-hander struck out 10 and walked one as second-seeded Monmouth fell to the No. 3 and two-time defending champion Pioneeers 7-1.
Monmouth (30-23-1) will attempt to stay alive in the double elimination event 12 p.m. today when it meets top-seeded Bryant (40-16-1) in a loser's bracket contest.
The Bulldogs, just the second team in NEC history to win as many as 40 games, were ambushed Thursday 7-2 by fourth-seed LIU-Brooklyn (21-31-1).
In a game that featured two former Jackson Memorial High School teammates Kevin Needham's 2-run single off Bryant ace Pete Kelich keyed a decisive four-run third inning.
It was one decisive inning as well that sealed the fate of the Hawks.
They had taken a short-lived 1-0 lead in the top of the second on a single by Owen Stewart (St. Rose), a sacrifice bunt by Joe Bamford, and a two-out RBI single through the left side by John Guida who had two of Monmouth's six hits.
But in the bottom half McGee (8-2), a graduate of Toms River High School South who had not lost since Feb 22 at current No. 1 Vanderbilt, 5-1, yielded two straight singles and a bunt hit that loaded the bases with nobody out.
McGee took an NEC best 1.76 ERA into Thursday when four of the runs against him were earned.
"I thought how it (three hits in a row) happened was more important than whether it happened or not,'' Ehehalt said. "It happened on three consecutive pitches and that kind of created some momentum.''
A hit batter tied the score and an RBI force play at second gave Sacred Heart (33-22) the lead. An infield RBI single, a run-scoring throwing error as the Hawks failed to turn a double play, and another-run scoring single finally capped the damage.
"And then we didn't turn the double plays,'' Ehehalt said. ""From a baseball stand point if you get out of that inning (trailing) 2-1, 3-1 you don't have to play chase the rest of the game against a really good arm.''
In the fourth Monmouth's Steve Wilgus pulled a double to right with two away and Chris Perret walked but Stewart grounded out.
After freshman Robbie Alessandrine singled for Monmouth to lead off the fifth Scribner set down the next 13 consecutive Hawks until Bamford singled with one out in the ninth.
Following the difficult second inning McGee pitched shutout ball until the ninth when senior catcher Rocco Gondek hit a tape measure two-run home run.
The shot to left field that would have made the BlueClaws proud cleared the concourse beyond the grassy berm.
Ehehalt said three or four pitchers in the NEC can arguably be the best guy on a given day.
"Today he (Sceibner) was the best guy out here,'' Ehehalt said. "Not by fluke. He deserved to beat us today.''
Monmouth dropped three games in a four-game series at Bryant May 10-12 winning the first game in 12 innings, 4-1.
Ehehalt said freshman right-hander Frank Trimarco (5-1, 2.45 ERA) will start today.
Trimarco pitched well at Bryant May 11 though suffering his only defeat while going 6.1 innings in the 4-3 setback in the second game of the seven-inning doubleheader.
"Hopefully we can swing the bats a little bit better,'' Ehehalt said. "Tomorrow is not going to be a picnic either. We just have to play with a little more intensity offensively. We didn't fire our best shot today.''
Thursday marked the seventh straight NEC Tournament win for Sacred Heart over the last three years and Monmouth's six consecutive post season loss to the Pioneers since defeating them in the 2009 championship round.
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Jr. lefty Andy McGee (TR South) is NEC 2013 Pitcher of the Year.

Jr. Jake Gronsky continues Monmouth's tradition of 1st team 2B. Gronsky is 1st team 2B for 2nd straight year, following in footsteps of Ryan Terry and Chris Collazo.

Owen Stewart makes Second Team All-NEC.

McGee was 3-0 on Friday starts vs. NEC teams.
Got no decisions vs. Bryant and Sacred Heart, made a Thursday start vs. CCSU and Saturday starts vs. QU and Wagner. Defeated Mount, FDU and LIU on Fridays. Was 6-0 in NEC starts overall, 3-0 in Friday NEC starts.

2103 Northeast Conference Baseball Tournament
Format: Double elimination

Who/When: Thursday - #1 Bryant (40-15-1, 27-5) vs. #4 LIU-Brooklyn (20-31-1, 16-14-1) 12 p.m. #2 Sacred Heart (32-22, 23-9) vs. #3 Monmouth (30-21-1, 19-11-1) 3:30 p.m. (aproximately)

Additional Monmouth games: Friday, plus Saturday, Sunday (if necessary)

Where: FirstEnergy Park. Lakewood.
Media: 88.9 FM, wmcx.com, gomuhawks. com (Monmouth games only), & www.Necfrontrow.com (all games).

Monmouth vs. the field: (5-5-1). Vs. Sacred Heart 3-1 (L 3-2, 12 inn.; W 6-3; 18-4; 11-6. Vs. Bryant 1-3 (W 4-1, 12 innings; L 9-0; 4-3, 7-3). Vs. LIU-Brooklyn (1-1-1). W 6-1; L 4-3; Tied 2-2.

Folks: Here is the story written by our news dept on the scheduled Thursday WLB vote on the football pressbox/area at Kessler Field.

For our purposes I have trimmed the story to include primarily the part that applies to MU football.

The full story can be found on the main app.com web site

Written by
Carol Gorga Williams
@APPCarol

While West Long Branch zoning officials must decide whether to permit Monmouth
University to build a new four-story press box for Kessler Field, Long Branch
officials will decide on expansion of theater and library space nearby.

Campus needs cross into several communities, including nearby Ocean Township as
well. Both hearings were postponed from earlier dates.

In the first case - (from me - this is the one concerning MU athletics - ) which is scheduled for a hearing 7:30 p.m. May 23 at the West
Long Branch Board of Adjustment, university attorney Wendell A. Smith, will
request a variance and site-plan approval for a four-story stadium press box
building that will be 33.2 feet wide, 124 feet long and 60.5 feet tall.

It will be built 220.9 feet away from Larchwood Avenue, which is largely
residential. The Kessler Field addition will replace the existing press box and
storage facility and will provide additional but limited seating for Kessler
Field Stadium.

"We are not proposing additional seating," said University Spokeswoman Petra
Ludwig Shaw.

"The current press box is significantly undersized and outdated," Ludwig Shaw
said in an e-mail. "The new facility will provide space for press staff as well
as the opposing team's athletic staff including statisticians, videographers,
radio personnel and coaching staff."

The first floor primarily will be comprised of indoor restrooms so the existing
portable toilet rooms will no longer be needed, she said. The second and third
floor will be for meeting rooms or future office space.

The first and second floors each will measure 3,139 square feet; the third floor
is planned to be 2,972 square feet and the partial fourth floor is 1,610 feet or
40-by-40 feet.

The building, which also includes an elevator, is proposed for a total of 10,652
square feet, Ludwig Shaw said.

The school expects to fund the project through private donations and has already
substantial commitments from donors including the Jules L. Plangere Jr. Family
Foundation, Inc. Since the design has not gone out for bid yet, the cost of the
project is not available, she said..