March 14, 2006
NORFOLK, VA--Junior Jimmy Miles (Orlando, FL) fell one single short of hitting for the cycle as the Old Dominion Monarchs defeated intrastate rival Radford 12-5 on Tuesday at the Bud Metheny Complex. With the victory, the Monarchs improve to 18-3 on the season while the Highlanders fell to 3-12. Sophomore Chris Keenan (Chesapeake, VA/Great Bridge) went 4 for 4 with three runs scored on the day, and also narrowly missed out on a cycle, needing a homer to accomplish the feat.
ODU opened up a 3-1 lead after the first inning, with Miles scoring on a Mike Zahm (Omaha, NE) groundout, Keenan crossing home plate thanks to a Dana Arrowood (Woodbridge, VA) RBI, and Bryan Cipolla (Plainview, NY) coming home off a wild pitch.
Old Dominion would score four more runs in the bottom half of the second inning to add insurance. Arrowood knocked in two of those runs when he belted his team-leading 3rd triple of the season down the right field line. Zahm and Keenan also contributed run scoring singles in that inning.
Up 7-1 in the 3rd inning and with a runner on base, Miles stepped up to the plate and slammed a line drive over the right field fence to put the score at 9-1. The Monarchs would end their scoring for the night in the 7th inning as Keenan collected an RBI triple and Cipolla hit a run scoring single.
The Monarchs pounded out 17 hits on the day, raising their team batting average to .361 on the season. Arrowood had three hits and now sports a .492 average at the plate, leading the team. His streak of 6 straight at-bats was snapped during this game. Cipolla, Keenan, and Miles each scored three runs in helping the Monarchs reach double digit run totals.
On the hill, freshman Anthony Shawler (Chesapeake, VA/Oscar Smith) picked up the mound victory, pitching 3 innings of one hit, one run baseball to improve to 2-0 on the season. Sophomore David Wagner (Johnston, PA) pitched a perfect seventh inning, striking out the side in the process before Arrowood came on to hurl the final frame.
For Radford, shortstop Ben Toth had a pair of hits and also scored two runs. Freshman J.B Blixt took the mound loss after throwing five wild pitches in 2.2 innings of work.
ODU and Radford meet on the diamond again on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. at the Bud Metheny complex.
WP- Anthony Shawler (2-0) LP J.B. Blixt (1-2) HR Miles (2)