Feb. 16, 2013
NORFOLK, Va. - Old Dominion University baseball jumped on top of Marshall with a three-run first inning and never looked back en route to a 10-1 victory Friday afternoon at the Bud Metheny Baseball Complex.
In his first career ODU start, lefthander Ryan Yarbrough took advantage of the early run support and earned the win throwing six innings, allowing just two hits and striking out seven.
Tyler Urps led off the ODU first with a single and after a ground out advanced Urps to second, Josh Eldridge delivered a single through the right side to score Urps and put ODU on top 1-0. After a pair of wild pitches, Eldridge ended up on third as Ben Slaton knocked him in with a single for the 2-0 lead. Joey Burney followed with a ringing double to score Slaton for the 3-0 lead.
The Monarchs pushed the lead to 4-0 when Jordan Negrini roped a double to left field to score Austin McGowan, who had reached on a single.
ODU added to its lead in the sixth inning as Urps and Eldridge added RBI singles.
Old Dominion blew the game open with a four run eighth inning. Eldridge provided the big blow with a bases loaded, two-run single. Burney walked with the bases loaded to force in a run and Michael Perez knocked in the final run of the afternoon with a sacrifice fly.
Marshall scored their only run in the fourth on an ODU error.
Eldridge continued his hot start to the season, going 4-for-5 with four RBI and two runs scored. Urps was 3-for-5 on the day with three runs scored while McGowan went 2-for-4.
Isaac Ballou had two of Marshall's five hits on the afternoon.
Yarbrough earned the win for the Monarchs while Aaron Blair took the loss for the Thundering Herd. Blair went four innings, allowing seven hits and four runs.
Erick Baker tossed two scoreless innings for ODU while Michael Reinerth pitched a scoreless ninth.
ODU and the Thundering Herd are back in action for the finale of the three-game set tomorrow at 1 p.m.