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NORFOLK, VA-- ODU Sophomore righthander Dean Ali fanned a career high 10 batters, Josh Wright belted a grand slam homer and fellow senior Brandon Shelton hit his first collegiate homer to lead the Monarchs (19-32/9-19) to a 8-1 CAA victory over Georgia State (22-31/12-16) Thursday night at the Bud Metheny Baseball Complex.
Ali (3-4), making his first start of the season held the Panthers hitless until a two-out hit by Joey Wood in the fifth inning. Ali walked only one batter and allowed just three hits along with his career high 10 strikeouts. He lowered his ERAto 2.34 with 60 strikeouts in 50.1 innings of work.
Freshman Connor Overton pitched two innings of shutout relief, followed byjunior Erick Baker who pitched a scoreless ninth inning. In all, ODU pitchersfanned 13 batters.
ODU jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second on Josh Wright's grand slam whichplated Michael Perez, Ben Verlander and Brandon Shelton. It was Wright's seventhhomer of the season.
In the fourth inning Brandon Shelton belted his first ever collegiate homer to giveODU a 5-0 lead. The Monarchs extended it to 7-0 as senior catcher Josh Tutwilerhit his team best eighth homerun with freshman outfielder Josh Eldridge aboard.
ODU finished the scoring in the seventh when Eldridge doubled, then came home onsenior Chris Baker's double.
Georgia State's lone run came in the sixth inning as Caden bailey doubled and then came home on an RBI double by Brandon Williams.
Josh Wright, Eldridge and Shelton each had two hits on the night for ODU. Joey Wood led GSU with two hits.
The Panthers losing pitcher Justin Malone fanned eight in seven innings of work.
In a pre-game ceremony ODU senior Chris Baker was presented the Harry Postove Memorial "Scouts Choice Award", and fellow senior Josh Wright was presented theRalph GUzzo Award by the Chesapeake Athletic Club as the Most Outstanding Monarch.
The two teams play again on Friday night at 6 p.m. This will be Youth League Night. All kids wearing their jerseys will bet in free to the game.
GSU 000 001 000=1-4-0ODU 040 120 10x=8-10-1
GSU Battery: Malone, Sullivan(8), and SarrattODU Battery: Ali, Overton(7), E.Baker(9) and Tutwiler
WP: Ali(3-4) LP: Malone(1-3)HR:- ODU Wright (7), Tutwiler (8), Shelton (1)