By Harry Minium
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – If Old Dominion needed to do more to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Baseball Tournament, the Monarchs did it Saturday with poise, heart and a gusty performance from fifth-year senior pitcher Jason Hartline.
In his third appearance in four days, the Chesapeake native threw 3 2/3 scoreless innings, and the Monarchs scored three runs in the top of the 13th, to defeat Louisiana Tech, 9-6, in the elimination bracket of the Conference USA Tournament.
ODU (41-16) and LA Tech (40-19) meet for a second time Saturday at about 7 p.m. with the winner to face either host Southern Miss or UTSA in the championship game on Sunday at 2 p.m.
It was the top of the order that allowed ODU to rally in the top of the 13th, including left fielder Andy Garriola, who drove in the game-winning run.
But the Monarchs got a big boost from Ryan Teschko, a junior from National Park, New Jersey, who had played sparingly this season.
Center fielder Thomas Wheeler began the inning with a single and right fielder Carter Trice, who hit a grand slam in to help ODU past Charlotte on Friday, laid down a sacrifice bunt that moved Wheeler to second.
Matt Coutney then singled up the middle, advancing Wheeler to third. Garriola then singled Wheeler home, bringing a thunderous applause from several hundred ODU fans, and thousands of Southern Miss fans in the stadium for Saturday's second game.
Josh Trujillo pinch ran for Garriola and then stole second and LA Tech elected to intentionally walk catcher Brock Gagliardi to load the bases. That brought up Teschko, who entered the game with two hits in 16 at bats.
But Teschko drilled a single to right field, scoring two big insurance runs for the Monarchs.
"All I was trying to do was get the barrel on the ball," said Teschko, who said he didn't know the bases were loaded, just that he had to get a hit.
"I saw the two runs score and I was happy, just so happy."
ODU pitched by committee. After pulling starter Tommy Gertner in the third, coach Chris Finwood and pitching coach Mike Marron called on Connor Muly, Brad Dobzanski, Joey DeChiaro, Vincent Bashara, Brett Smith, Noah Dean, Nick Pantos and Hartline out of the bullpen. They limited LA Tech to just two runs in the final nine innings.
Garriola was 3-for-7 with a home run and three RBIs and third baseman Kenny Levari added a home run scored two runs.
But said Finwood: "This game was about a fifth-year senior pitching his heart out.
"He came into the dugout every inning sweating bullets. I'd ask 'how are you feeling" and he kept telling me 'I can keep going.'
"He was our last bullet to fire in that game and he wasn't going to be denied. He just wasn't coming out.
"Those kinds of performances, that's something you never forget."
ODU lost to LA Tech 7-2 in Wednesday's second round and defeated Charlotte, 13-4, on Thursday to battle back into the semifinals. As is always the case when you lose a game early, you have to fight an uphill battle to get to the championship game.
Because LA Tech was off Thursday, its pitching staff will be fresher than ODU's. Finwood said some position players who pitched in high school could end up pitching tonight.
Regardless, Saturday's victory does much to burnish ODU's credentials for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid. Finwood said the victory over Charlotte clinched the Monarchs a bid on Friday. Some prognosticators, including D1 Baseball, still had ODU as the first team out of the field of 64 on Saturday morning.
The win over LA Tech should have ended any doubts.
"I was proud as hell after yesterday because I thought that got us in," Finwood said. "This one definitely got us in. Both teams today certainly deserve to be in the postseason."
Told about the D1 Baseball field if 64, Finwood grimaced.
"If they don't think this team belongs, then they're a bunch of clowns," he said, adding: "You can quote me."
Both coaches kept short strings on their starting pitchers, and the Monarchs chased starter Greg Martinez in the second inning. ODU scored twice in the first, thanks in part to a LA Tech miscue.
Trice walked and Coutney doubled to put players on second and third with one out. Garriola then sent a sharp bouncer that glanced off Martinez's throwing hand. Trice scored easily and then Coutney scored when Martinez recovered the ball and threw wildly, forcing catcher Cole McConnell to retrieve the ball.
Levari doubled to begin the second and second baseman Chris Dengler then laid down a sacrifice bunt that moved him to third. Shortstop Tommy Bell was then hit by a pitch, the school-record 51st time that has happened his career, and LA Tech coach Lane Burroughs had seen enough.
He yanked Martinez and inserted Ryan Harland, who gave up a single to Wheeler that drove in Levari and made it 3-1. Harland left two runners stranded by forcing Trice to ground out and then striking out Coutney.
Garriola then opened the third inning with his third home run of the tournament, a towering drive that the outfielders didn't even feign a move to field, that gave ODU a 4-1 lead.
Levari followed three batters later with a home run that drove in Gagliardi and gave the Monarchs a 6-1 lead.
LA Tech slowly but surely cut into the lead. Thanks in part to three walks and two batters hit by pitches, LA Tech got three runs back in the bottom of the third. Philip Matulia drove in Taylor Young, who walked, with a home run.
Muly came in to relieve Gertner with the bases loaded and one out and poured water on what could have been a bad inning for the Monarchs. He forced Adarius Myers to hit into a fielder's choice, which scored a run.
Two batters later, Logan McLeod drove a long line drive to left field that was deftly gloved by Wheeler on the run, leaving three LA Tech runners stranded.
McLeod drove a single up the middle in the bottom of the seventh to narrow the lead to 6-5.
Young then tied the score in the bottom of the eighth with a home run just over the right-center fence. Wheeler tried to climb the fence to snag the ball, but it just wasn't within reach.
The rest of the game, which took nearly five hours, was a grind played in humid, hot weather on artificial turf. Players were soaked with sweat at game's end. Gagliardi stripped off his shirt and guzzled a full bottle of water in one long gulp after being mobbed by jubiliant ODU fans.
"That's one of the best games we've ever played," Finwood said. "It was the elimination game, the 13th inning, everybody's pitching on short rest, everybody's out of gas.
"Everything about that game was everything we try to get out of college athletics. Just fighting for your team. Carter Trice gets that bunt down in the 13th inning. We got a guy who hasn't played much all year and comes off the bench and gets a two-RBI single.
"It's so gratifying. The guys, they just did it. They weren't going to lose. That was two tough-minded teams just fighting it out.
"Who knows who we will pitch tonight. We'll figure that out as we go."
ODU Baseball Gets a Gutsy Performance from Jason Hartline; Outlasts LA Tech 9-6 in 13 innings
Andy Garriola