Los Angeles, CA – The Montclair State University baseball team took down Occidental College 7-3 Friday afternoon in the opener of a three-game weekend series.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Red Hawks (7-1) fell behind early as the Tigers took the lead on a solo home run to right field in the bottom of the second. Occidental threatened again in the third by putting the leadoff man on base, but a 6-3-4 double play during the next at-bat cleared the basepaths.
• The visitors leveled the contest on a RYAN MCKENNA home run to lead off the fourth inning. Occidental reclaimed the advantage in the bottom half of the frame with a RBI single to left field with two outs.
• Montclair immediately answered in the fifth to take the lead for the first time on the afternoon. REECE MALEK walked and stole second, and MARCUS JOHNSON drove him home to tie the game. SAM ANGELO homered to center field in the next at-bat to open up a 4-2 lead for the Red Hawks.
• The Red Hawks put runners on second and third to kick off the top of the sixth, and Angelo singled up the middle to bring in another run. McKenna drove in the second of the frame with a sacrifice fly to center field to expand the advantage to four.
• Occidental scored in the bottom of the eighth, but Montclair tacked on a run in the ninth on an RBI single from JASON MOORE to make the final margin 7-3.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Angelo tied his season-high with three RBI. The graduate student has reached base in every game this season and has tallied an RBI in five of Montclair's eight contests.
• McKenna has homered in back-to-back contests for the Red Hawks to bring his career total to 10.
• JACK HAVESON struck out six batters over five and two thirds innings pitched. MATTHEW TIPLADY entered the contest in relief and threw three and a third innings, with MICHAEL TODARO punching out two batters in a 1-2-3 ninth.
• MAX MCLOUGHLIN tallied a career-high three hits in the game, with MATT KALISKE collecting two in his first start of the campaign.
• The game marked the first for Montclair in the state of California since the 2007 season. It also was the first meeting between the two sides since March 12, 1998.
• The Red Hawks have won seven straight games, scoring six or more runs in five of those contests.

FROM THE FIELD

"Solid pitching from [Jack] Haveson, [Matthew] Tiplady, and [Michael] Todaro with some timely hitting set the tone for a win. Good way to start the trip." - Head Coach Dave Lorber

UP NEXT

The Red Hawks will continue their series with Occidental on Saturday, March 9. First pitch from Los Angeles, CA is scheduled for 4:00 PM Eastern Time.