March 4, 2011
NORFOLK, Va. - Kyle Hald struck out a career-high tying 11 while Nate Hartman and Chris Baker slugged home run to lead Old Dominion University baseball to a 4-1 victory over Fairfield Friday afternoon at Bud Metheny Baseball Complex.
With the win the Monarchs improve to 6-4 while the Stags drop to 2-3.
Old Dominion took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second when Hartman sent a blast over the right field fence for his first home run of the season.
ODU increased the lead in the third when Joey Burney started the inning off with a double, Shawn Sizemore reached on a two-out walk and Baker followed with a homer over the left field fence to make it a 4-0 ODU lead.
That was more than enough support for Hald who allowed just one runner to reach third base. The senior lefty allowed just two singles and walked one in seven innings to go with his 11 strikeouts. Hald dropped his ERA to 0.41.
Fairfield got on the board in the eighth when Ryan Plourde scored on a sacrifice fly by Larry Cornelia. ODU center fielder Kenny Stoneback made a diving catch to take extra bases away from Cornelia and to allow just the one run to score. Adam Wisniewski came on to pitch with two outs in the inning and got a ground out to end the inning.
Baker had two hits for ODU and three RBI to lead the offense for the Monarchs while Cornelia, Mark Skrapits and Plourde had hits for the Stags.
The two teams play a doubleheader tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Bud Metheny Baseball Complex.