April 23, 2010
NORFOLK, VA--Old Dominion's junior lefthander Kyle Hald (Springfield, Va.) pitched a complete Game six hitter to lead the Monarchs to a 9-1 CAA victory over Towson Friday night. The largest crowd of the season at 1,033 were in attendance at the Bud Metheny Baseball Complex.It was also the seventh largest at the Bud.
"Tonight was a great atmosphere, and really gave us a homefield advantage," saidODU Head coach Jerry Meyers. "The players and coaching staff would like to thankthe fans, and the ODU students for coming out and supporting us tonight."
Hald, who leads the CAA in strikeouts, fanned eight with three walks and six hits. He lowered His ERA to 2.32 which ranks second in the CAA, and now has a league best 77 strikeouts in 77.2 Innings of work. His fourth complete game of the season is also a CAA best.
The Monarchs broke the game open with a five run explosion in the third inning. Kenny Stoneback( Colonial Heights, VA>) Started things off with a lead-off triple, then scored on a Towson error. With the bases loaded Josh Wright singled home Jake McAloose (Virginia Beach, VA.) and Donnie Corsner (Virginia Beach, VA.). John Malbon (Virginia Beach, VA.)followed with a double to score Chris Baker (Chesapeake, Va. and Josh Wright (Bridgewater, Va.).
Corsner doubled home stoneback in the sixth inning to make it 6-1. ODU added three more in the seventh on a Baker double and a two-run single by Malbon.
Malbon finished the game with four RBI on two hits. McAloose, Baker, and Stoneback each had two hits on the night as well.
Towson scored its lone run in the third. Andrew Parker led off with a walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on Kurt Wertz's single.
Towson's Austin Hurd struck out five of the first eight Monarchs he faced. He finished with 11 strikeouts in six innings of work.
Game two of the CAA series is Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Bud Metheny Baseball Complex.
TU 001 000 000 1-6-1ODU 005 001 30x 9-11-0
TU battery: Austin Hurd, Tyler Austin(7), Charlie Cononie(8) and Andrew ParkerODU battery: Kyle Hald and Edgar Hernandez
WP:Hald (7-3) LP: Austin Hurd (2-3)