The momentum swung the other direction when Hawks coach Eric Anderson called freshman Brandon Burnell out of the bullpen.

With the bases loaded full of veteran Mustangs, the rookie recorded three consecutive outs and his teammates erupted from the bench and the field. The No. 4 Hawks’ bats woke up in the top of the sixth and again in the seventh en route to an 8-6 comeback victory over the No. 1 Mustangs.

“It felt so good everybody was behind me and supporting me,”Burnell said. “I felt like my defense was there for me, I didn’t really have to worry about it.”

Despite his Burnell’s age, Anderson knew he does one thing very well.

“We were definitely a little flat before that,” Eric Anderson said of before bringing Burnell in. “Kyle Jordan came in (to relief starter Roderick Maynard), he hasn’t pitched much he has had a bad shoulder. It brought us down a little bit when he was struggling. But Brandon is a freshman and hasn’t pitched much varsity this year, but the one thing he can do is throw strikes. When we put our best defense out there, I was confident with him changing speeds, throwing strikes and we would makes plays for him.”

In the top of the six, Sacopee Valley got into the Monmouth bullpen by loading the bases. Burnell singled to drive in one run to cut the deficit to 5-2, but confusion by the baserunners ended the rally on the same play.

“We don’t play the competition down our way as (Monmouth) does,” Anderson said. “I knew we were solid and I knew we could compete. Once I knew Kyle Fletcher wasn’t available, I knew that was going to be a bonus for us if we could get to Nate Gagne. Once we got him out of the game, that was a real inning-hurter when we ran into that out. Last year in Winthrop we were down 4-0 in the seventh inning and we came back to score seven runs in that game. I kept telling the boys ‘remember Winthrop, it’s not over until its over. The boys responded.”

Winthrop came back to win last year’s regional quarterfinal game with the Hawks, 8-7.

Brandon Goff, Hunter Richardson and Kyle Fletcher opened the bottom of the sixth for Monmouth with singles, and Goff scored on Fletcher’s hit. Burnell regained his composure by forcing the next two batters to pop out and the following batter to ground out.

With two runs already in for the Hawks, they scored another run on a steal of third base and a wild throw into left field from Monmouth catcher Phil Rowe. Kyle Jordan’s RBI double tied the contest. With the Mustangs’ infield playing in, Alex Fenderson found a hole on the left side and two more of his teammates came home to take the 8-6 lead.

In the bottom of the seventh, Burnell looked like he was a grizzled veteran, using his curve ball to buckle the knees of the bottom third of the Mustangs order as Monmouth went down 1-2-3.

Sacopee Valley scored the first run of the game as Brady Anderson scored from second base on a throwing error by Monmouth starter Nate Gagne. Rowe tied the contest up in the second with a sacrifice fly. The Mustangs (16-2) added three runs in the bottom of the third to stretch the lead to 4-1. In the bottom fourth, Monmouth added another run, but left the bases loaded.

Gagne pitched into the sixth inning for Monmouth while Sacopee Valley starter Maynard was lifted with one out in the fourth inning.

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