HOUSTON, TX- Skyler Ewing’s one-out hit in the bottom of the 17th lifted the 18th ranked Rice Owls to a 3-2 victory over Old Dominion University in game one of a doubleheader Saturday at Reckling Park.
This was the second longest game in ODU baseball history, one inning shy of the school mark of 18 set on May 19, 2006 at Towson. Total time was 4:53 minutes in a contest that started at 11 am ET.
The Monarchs took the early lead in the third inning when Josiah Burney singled and would later score on a Josh Eldridge single.
Rice took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth when Michael Aquino doubled to right scoring Keenan Cook. The second Owl run came on John Clay Reeves sacrifice fly to rightfield which brought home Skyler Ewing.
In the eighth, ODU rallied and tied the game as Ben Slaton doubled and came home on Jordan Negrini’s RBI single.
In the 17th, Stainback singled with one out, and Keenan Cook followed with a single to put runners on the corners. Ewing then hit an 0-2 pitch to leftfield to bring home the game winner.
The Monarchs threatened in the top of the 17th. Taylor Ostrich got a two-out double and Mike Perez followed with a walk, but were left stranded.
Josh Eldridge, Ben Slaton and Jordan Negrini led ODU with two hits each. The two teams will play game two at 4:30 today. Listen to it live on Star1310 AM radio with Ted Alexander.
ODU 001 000 010 000 000 00=2-10-1
Rice 000 200 000 000 000 01=2-12-2
ODU – Alexander, (4) Sam Sinnen, Bishop (7), Gero (9), Diaz(13),Ali (17) and Perez
Rice- Fox ,T.Teykl(8),Ditman(8), Duplantier (10), McCarthy (12), Orewiler(17) and Reeves
WP- Orewiler (1-0) LP: Diaz (1-1)