Feb. 16, 2005
NORFOLK, Va. -- The Old Dominion baseball team improved to 3-2 on the young season as rallies in the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings gave the Monarchs a 9-6 come from behind victory over Virginia on Wednesday afternoon at Bud Metheny Stadium. The Cavaliers (2-2) are ranked 33rd in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Top-35 Poll and are also receiving votes in the Sports Weekly/ESPN Top-25 Poll.
Down 6-2 entering the bottom of the sixth, Old Dominion collected four runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh while holding Virginia to just one hit the rest of the way. Justin Gregula (Washington, PA.) singled to center field to send home Bryan Cipolla (Plainview, N.Y.) to start the rally and at the next at-bat Tyler Belcher (Bristol, Va.) smashed a three-run RBI homerun out of the stadium to tie the game at 6-6. Belcher would finish the afternoon going 3-for-4 with three RBIs.
Old Dominion took over the lead in the seventh with Cipolla rounding the bases yet again, capitalizing on a Cavalier error on a throw to third with two on base. Virginia then looked to intentionally walk Eric Messa (Miami, Fla.), but a wild pitch from Ryan Ouellette resulted in Dana Arrowood (Woodbridge, Va.) reaching home from third to put the Monarchs up 8-2. Jesse Schoendienst (Belcamp, Md.) followed with a sacrifice fly to centerfield to send home Gregula for an insurance run.
The Cavaliers had taken an early 3-0 lead with two outs in the top of the first. Josh Darby collected an RBI double while a batter later Ryan Zimmerman hit to deep centerfield for a two-run homer. Old Dominion lit up the scoreboard in the bottom of the inning as Cipolla singled up the middle to send lead-off batter Evan Chipman (Raleigh, N.C.) home with two outs and cut the ODU deficit to 3-1.
Virginia managed three more runs in the bottom of the second on three hits. With the bases loaded, ODU's starting pitcher, Hunter Hall (Virginia Beach, Va.), managed to hit Darby with a pitch to give the Cavaliers its first run of the inning. Sean Doolittle then sent home two more Cavaliers run with a single.
The Monarchs' righthander James Burok (Archbald, Pa.) earned the victory to improve to 1-0 after entering the game in the top of the sixth with one out. Burok tossed the rest of the way allowing just one hit and striking out three. The Cavaliers' Ouellette (0-1) picked up the loss for Virginia allowing three runs on four hits in 1.1 innings of work.
The Monarch baseball team returns to action this weekend at the Citadel Tournament in Charleston, South Carolina. The Monarchs will face The Citadel on Friday with first pitch at 4:00 p.m. On Saturday, Old Dominion will square off against Richmond while Sunday they face former CAA rival Richmond.