March 22, 2013
NORFOLK, VA--ODU junior designated hitter Ben Slaton singled home Tyler Urps for the go-ahead run in the eighth as the Monarchs (11-9/3-4) defeated Towson (12-8/4-3) Friday night, 4-3 at the Bud Metheny Baseball Complex.
With the score tied 3-3 in the eighth Monarch shortstop Tyler Urps led off with a double down the leftfield line. With one out, Slaton singled off starter Mike Volpe for the 4-3 lead.
ODU senior reliever Brandon Smith came on in the ninth and after Andrew Parker walked and Kurt Wertz singled, Smith settled down to get a strikeout, then a double play to end the game with his fifthsave of the season. Freshman lefthander Jake Joseph's picked up the win of the season in relief to run his record to 3-1.
ODU jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second on Ben Verlander's CAA leading seventh homer of the season. Towson came right back to tie the game in the third on Brandon Gonella's sacrifice fly RBI which plated Brendan Butler.
ODU went ahead in the bottom of the third as junior secondbaseman Brian Bashara hit a one out double to centerfield, then scored on a sacrifice fly RBI by Urps.
In the sixth inning Towson added two runs to take a 3-2 lead on RBI double by Andrew parker and an RBI single by Kurt Wertz. The Monarchs tied the game in the bottom of the sixth as Ben Slaton singled and would later score from third on a wild pitch.
Freshman centerfielder Connor Myers, Slaton and Verlander led ODU with two hits each, while Andrew Parker and Kurt Wertz had two hits each for Towson.
ODU starter Dean Ali, a junior righthander pitched seven innings allowing three runs on four hits with four walks and five strikeouts. Towson starter Mike Volpe pitched 7.1 innings of work allowing all four runs with just one walk and eight strikeouts for his first loss of the season (3-1).
Because of the possibility of bad weather on Sunday, the two teams will play a double-header Saturday beginning at 2 p.m.
TU 001 002 000=3-5-1ODU 011 001 01x=4-9-1
TU Battery: Volpe, Baruka(8) and ParkerODU Battery: Ali, Joseph's (8), Smith(9) and PerezWP: Joseph's (3-1) LP: Volpe(3-1), Save: B.Smith (5)
HR- Verlander (7)