May 20, 2004
WILMINGTON, NC-Justin Verlander (Goochland, VA.) and Donnie Smith (Portsmouth, VA.) combined for a seven hitter and fanned 16 batters as the Monarchsdefeated UNC Wilmington, 3-2 Thursday night for their 11th straight victory. ODU (26-24/13-9) has won six straight on the road. The second place Seahawks fall to 31-20/15-6).
ODU struck first with two runs in the first inning. Keith Hahn led off with a walkfollowed by a Steven Harris (Virginia Beach, VA.) single. Dana Arrowood's groundoutplated Keith Hahn. Derek James then doubled home Steven Harris.
In the second inning, Allen Strick singled, Bryan Cipolla was hit with a pitch andKenny Gram reached on an error to load the bases. Hahn then walked to force in Strickand give ODU a 3-0 lead.
The Seahawks scored an unearned run in the bottom of the second on two Monarch errors. UNCW's second run came in the seventh as Tim Preston scored ona Justin Verlander wild pitch. Donnie Smith then came in and struck out six of theNext seven batters he faced for his sixth save of the year.
Verlander fanned ten battersto give him 145 strikeouts this season, breaking his ODU single season record of 139set a year ago and establishing a new CAA single season mark, breaking Mike Smith's(Richmond '00) of 143. On the defensive side, junior catcher Kenneth Gram threw outthree Seahawk runners. The two teams play again Friday night at 7:00 p.m.
ODU 210 000 000 =3-7-4UNCW 010 000 100=2-7-2
WP; Justin Verlander (7-5)LP: Zach Kimball(6-5)SA: Donnie Smith (6)