MONMOUTH — Recent history and frequent rumblings throughout Monday’s MVC matchup with Winthrop suggested Monmouth’s offense was due to erupt.

Down 8-3 in the sixth inning, the Mustangs didn’t have much time.

Monmouth showed a sense of urgency, but still found time to do the little things, while exploding for eight runs in the sixth and rallying for an 11-8 win.

Billy Cummings, Brandon Goff and D.J. McHugh led the Mustangs’ 13-hit outburst with three hits apiece. Dakota Carter led the Ramblers’ 12-hit attack with a single, double, triple, three RBIs and two runs scored.

“We just kept going hard at it and kept sticking with it,” said McHugh, who tossed a scoreless seventh inning to pick up the save. “We got hits every inning but we just couldn’t make anything of it, and it was due to happen.”

Monmouth (6-1) jumped on tiring Winthrop (5-1) starter Jared Hanson in the sixth, jumping on the first pitch frequently.

“We’ve hit well all year, and we hadn’t been hitting that well at the beginning of the game,” Monmouth coach Eric Palleschi said. “But then finally we started hitting the ball hard and (Winthrop) missed a couple plays and we took advantage of it and just kept rolling.”

Brett Wilson got it started with a leadoff walk. Kyle Fletcher (2-for-3) doubled, then Wilson scored on Goff’s infield hit.

Cummings made it 8-5 with an RBI double. Alex Curtis followed with a single to center to drive in Goff and Cummings came around to score on an errant throw, which also allowed Curtis to reach third. Curtis then beat the first baseman’s throw home on Josh Fournier’s grounder to tie it, 8-8.

Even though they were hitting Hanson hard and even though McHugh was 3-for-3 up to that point, Palleschi had McHugh bunt the go-ahead run into scoring position.

“I didn’t even have to give him a sign. He knew it was coming,” Palleschi said. “That’s how we play.”

“That’s alright,” McHugh said. “Hey, we moved runners over and it put us into another scoring position.”

Indeed, Devin West singled to score Fournier with what proved to be the winning run and knocked Hanson out of the game after 109 pitches.

“We’ve got three pitchers and we need them (with games coming up) Wednesday against Wiscasset and Friday against Spruce Mountain. We’ve got to stretch these guys as far as we can,” Winthrop coach Marc Fortin said. “Hanson wasn’t the problem. We couldn’t make the damn plays behind him. If we make the plays, we’re 6-0.”

Wilson’s RBI single and Fletcher’s sacrifice fly added insurance against reliever Matt Sekerak.

Winthrop went into the game averaging nearly 12 runs per game, Monmouth nearly 10. The Ramblers set the tone for the anticipated slugfest with a four-run first, highlighted by Ben Allen’s RBI single and Carter’s two-run triple against Monmouth southpaw Kyle Fletcher. Tyler Stockford’s RBI double made it 5-0 in the third.

Goff and winning pitcher Nate Gagne limited the Ramblers to three more runs the rest of the way.

“I think the big thing for us was Kyle didn’t have it today on the mound… and we had some guys willing to step in and throw strikes and kept them off-balance and kept us in the game,” Palleschi said.

Monmouth stranded two runners in each of the first two innings, then finally got on the board in the third on Fournier’s RBI ground out. Another RBI ground out by Wilson and run-scoring single by Goff cut the deficit to five.