March 13, 2007
NORFOLK, VA -- Old Dominion spotted the Red Foxes of Marist College (1-9) nine runs in the first three innings but used explosive hitting and efficient relief pitching to come back and win 14-10. David Burns, Joe Velleggia, and Nick Erdman all had home runs in the final three frames for ODU, including a two-out go-ahead grand slam off Erdman's bat in the bottom of the eighth. Cory Toth earned his first win of the year in relief and Hunter Hall came in to earn his first save of the year.
Erdman's go-ahead slam might not have been possible, however, had Jake McAloose not placed a perfect bunt down the third base line that stopped moving directly atop the chalk. His bunt, intended to be a sacrifice, loaded the bases for David Burns in the eighth. Burns and Tyler Belcher would walk, scoring two and leaving the bases loaded. Brooks Sinnen and Velleggia would go down bringing Erdman up with two outs and the score tied at 10. The home run was the first of his career at ODU and it ran the score to its final, 14-10.
ODU smacked 19 hits in eight innings at the plate, led by Burns, Mike Zahm, and Gerard Hall with three apiece. Burns went 3-for-4 with two RBI's and two runs scored. Erdman's line included five RBI's and two runs scored, a homer and a double. Eight of the ten Monarchs that played had at least one run, hit and RBI each.
On the mound, Brady Burchill started for ODU and struggled in two innings of work. David Wagner came on in relief and pitched lights out. In five innings, Wagner had six strikeouts, four hits, and just two runs. The offense wouldn't come around for Wagner, though, and Cory Toth earned the victory in 1.1 innings of scoreless relief. Toth only allowed two hits before handing the ball over to Hunter Hall for the save. Hall came in with one out in the ninth and quickly retired the final two Red Foxes on a pop-out to second and a strikeout looking.
Marist jumped to their early lead with powerful hitting, including a Kenny Anderson three-run home run in the first inning. Marist also grabbed six runs in the third inning on six hits. Anderson led the way in the game with a 3-for-5, four RBI, two runs scored afternoon. Ryan Gauck and Richard Curylo also added two hits apiece for the Red Foxes.
On the mound for Marist, Tom Close pitched well enough to win in five innings of work. He allowed just four runs, three coming in his final inning, and scattered 10 hits while striking out three. In relief, however, Mike Puckli allowed three runs in two innings of work, while Rob Glowacki allowed two runs and Sandy Sussman allowed four runs and didn't retire any Monarchs. Robert Ryan would stop the bleeding by giving up just one hit and one run in one inning of work.
The Monarchs improve to 14-8 overall as they head to the University of Richmond for a night game on Wednesday. First pitch is set for 7:00 pm. Old Dominion will then return home for the home conference opener this weekend as they host Hofstra in a three-game set. First pitch on Friday is set for 7:00 pm, for Saturday is 5:00 pm, and for Sunday is 2:00 pm.
Score by Innings R H E-------------------------------------------Marist.............. 306 001 000 - 10 12 1Old Dominion Univ... 001 005 17X - 14 19 2-------------------------------------------
2B - Lepore,J(2); Burns(6), Erdman(2), Hall, G(6).HR - Anderson,K(1); Burns(6), Velleggia(2), Erdman(1).
WP: Cory Toth (1-0)S: Hunter Hall (1)LP: Sandy Sussman (0-2)