March 16, 2013
ATLANTA, Ga. - Old Dominion University baseball led Georgia State 10-1 after five and a half innings, but the Panthers scored the final 11 runs in the game, and four in the ninth defeat ODU 12-10 Saturday afternoon in Atlanta.
ODU led 10-8 entering the final inning when Nic Wilson hit a one out homer to right center to cut the gap to 10-9. Greg Bowder walked and moved to second on a passed ball and scored on a single by Garitt Church to tie the game at 10. Church moved to third on the play and the next batter, Chase Raffield hit a walk-off homer to right field to give Georgia State a 12-10 win.
Old Dominion (9-8, 2-3) took a 10-1 lead in the top of the sixth with back-to-back RBI doubles from Jordan Negrini and Ben Slaton and a sacrifice fly from Mike Perez.
Georgia State (13-6, 4-1) responded with two runs in the sixth, two in the seventh, three in the eighth and four in the ninth.
GSU got things started in the second on an RBI fielder's choice from Church but the Monarchs roared back with four runs in the third.
P.J. Higgins started the inning with a double and scored on Connor Myers' RBI single. ODU loaded the bases with a pair of sacrifice bunt from Austin McGowan who reached when GSU tried to get out Myers at second and failed, and a walk to Verlander. Negrini followed with a ringing double to left field to score McGowan and Myers. Shawn Sizemore capped the inning with an RBI groundout.
ODU pushed its lead to 7-1 in the fifth with a three run inning that included a home run from Ben Verlander, an RBI double from Slaton and run scoring single from P.J. Higgins.
GSU started its comeback in the bottom of the sixth with Wilson's first home of the game, a two-run shot that made it 10-3.
The Panthers got two more runs in the seventh on a passed ball and an error to make the score 10-5.
Georgia State cut the lead to 10-8 in the eight with three more runs, two on a single from Chad Prain and one on a RBI single from Church.
Myers and Higgins led ODU with three hits apiece while Negrini and Slaton each knocked a pair of doubles and combined for five RBI. Verlander scored three runs and hit his sixth home run of the year.
Prain was 4-for-5 for GSU while Wilson hit two homers and had three RBI.
ODU and GSU play the finale of the three-game series on Sunday at 1 p.m.