May 22, 2010
HEMPSTEAD, NY--Old Dominion (23-30/10-13) rallied from seven runs down to defeat thePride of Hofstra, 15-14 in 10 innings. Junior catcher Joe Velleggia's (Monkton, MD.) two-run homer in the tenth with John Malbon (Virginia Beach, Va.) aboard proved to be enough for the win.
The Monarchs tied the game at 13-13 in the ninth when sophomore firstbaseman Chris Baker (Chesapeake, VA.) tripled home Donnie Corsner(Virginia Beach, Va.) and Josh Wright (Bridgewater, Va.) with two outs. That hit in his last at-bat kept Baker's hitting streak alive at 27 which is the fifth longest streak in the nation.
The Monarchs hit five homers on the day. Nathan Hartman hit two homers while, Josh Wright, Jake McAloose, and Joe Velleggia hit one each.
Chris Buss who went a perfect six for six yesterday, got a hit in each of hisfirst two at-bats today, before popping up to the pitcher in his third at-bat.He fell one hit shy of the school mark of nine consecutive hits set by Jeff Beardin 1982.
ODU took a 2-0 lead in the first as Jake McAloose (Virginia Beach, Va.) slammed his ninth homer of the season with Josh Wright (Bridgewater, VA.) aboard.
Hofstra rallied in the second inning with four runs as Jared Hammer, Matt Ford, Mike Walraven and Ethan Pauquette had RBI singles to give the Pride a 4-2 leads.
The Monarchs scored an unearned run in the third as Chris Buss doubled and came on an error on John Malbon's groundout. Hofstra scored four more runs in the fourth highlighted by a two run single by John Kenny for an 8-3 lead. The Pride then added two more runs in the fifth for a 10-3 lead.
Junior righthfielder Nathan Hartman (Orlando, Fl.) slammed his seventh homer of the year to lead off the sixth inning. Donnie Corsner followed with an RBI double which scored Velleggia. Josh Wright later followed with a three-run homer with Corsner and Stoneback aboard. Hartman again led off the seventh with his second solo homer of the day. Then in the eighth inning Hartman would double home Baker and Malbon. To make cut Hofstra's lead to 13-11.
Junior Adam Wisniewski (Norfolk, Va.) picked up the win for the second straight day. CAA co-pitcher of the week, C.J. Huyett (Lawrenceville, PA.) came on in the tenth to pick up his first save of the year.
Josh Wright and Nathan Hartman led ODU with three hits each. Hartman also knocked in four runs, while Matt Prokopowicz led Hofstra with five hits and three runs batted in.
The third and final game of the series is Sunday at 1 p.m.
ODU 201 005 122 2-15-16-1HU 040 421 200 1-14-19-3
ODU Battery: Chris Boggs ,Brandon Smith, Cory Toth(8) , Wisniewski (9), Huyett (10) and Joe Velleggia
HU Battery: David D'Errico, Andrew Barbarino (6), Joe Berg(7) , Jeff Gutheidge(9) , Sean Monaghan (10)and Kevin Flynn
WP: Wisniewski (4-2) LP: Monaghan (3-6) SAVE: Huyett (1)
HR: ODU-McAloose (9), Hartman 2, (8), J.Wright (7), Velleggia(6); HU - Prokopowicz (6)