Montclair State handed LaGrange its third straight loss, beating the Panthers (11-7) 7-1 at Cleaveland Field on Friday night. The Red Hawks (6-2) got solid pitching from starter Zach Brown and scored five of their runs with two outs.
Brown (3-0) pitched 7-1/3 innings to get the win. He did not allow a hit until the fourth inning. Brown finished the game allowing five hits, a run, walked two and struck out eight.
Neal Smith (3-3) took the loss for the Panthers. Smith allowed four runs; three earned, in three innings. He gave up five hits, walked three and struck out two.
Robby Williams allowed a run in four innings of relief. Williams walked one and struck out three. Mason Webster surrendered two runs on two hits in two innings of work.
Montclair finished the game with 12 hits. The Red Hawks had five players with two hits in the game. The Panthers had six hits, two of those were doubles by Craig Mobley (2-for-3).
The Red Hawks got two runs in both the first and third inning to go up 4-0. Anthony Bowens (2-for-5, 2 RBI) had a two-run two-out double in the third.
Trailing 5-0, the Panthers got a run back in the sixth inning. Kevin McCrary (0-for-4, R) struck out but reached first as the ball got away on the third strike. He stole second and came around to score on a RBI single to right by David Miller ((1-for-4, RBI).
Montclair added two runs in the ninth inning off Webster to pad their lead to 7-1. The Panthers stranded a runner at third in each of the last three innings. They stranded eight runners in the game, six in scoring position.
The Panthers host Rust in a pair of doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday.
