NORFOLK, VA—The ODU Baseball Monarchs (15-10/5-5) defeated the Charlotte 49ers in the opening game of the Conference USA series, 7-2 behind the pitching of senior lefthander Ryan Yarbrough. ODU pounded out 11 hits, including a season high six doubles on the day led by Senior designated hitter Ben Slaton with three hits and two RBI. The Monarchs scored all seven of their runs in the first four innings.
Yarbrough (2-4) pitched eight innings scattering eight hits with two unearned runs, no walks and three strikeouts.
Slaton got things going for ODU when he singled in Nick Walker, followed by an RBI double from Josiah Burney, the C-USA Hitter of the Week to give ODU a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Nick Walker’s sacrifice fly RBI brought home Mike Perez in the second, while Taylor Ostrich doubled home Ben Slaton in the third for a 4-0 lead.
The Monarchs finished their scoring in the fourth with three runs with a RBI singles from Nick Walker and Ben Slaton along with a sacrifice fly RBI by Burney.
All nine Monarch starters reached base and eight of them had at-least one hit on the afternoon. Freshman Nick Walker, Slaton, and Burney each had two RBI, while junior leftfielder Josh Eldridge had two hits on the day.
Charlotte had four players with two hits which included; Mikal Hill, Corbin Shive, Logan Sherer and Brett Lang.
Game two of the three-game series is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. Saturday at the Bud Metheny Baseball Complex.
CHA 000 000 020=2-8-0
ODU 211 300 00x=7-11-1
CHA: Roberts, Harris(7), Mas(8), Davis (8) and Lang,Raley(8)
ODU : Yarbrough, Sam Sinnen(9) and Perez
WP: Yarbrough (2-4) LP: Roberts (0-3)