MYRTLE BEACH, SC—ODU (2-3) rallied for three runs in the bottom of the eighth to defeat Rutgers Saturday evening, 3-2 at the Cal Ripken Complex.
Trailing 2-0 in the eighth, PJ Higgins (Wallingford, CT.) led off with a single and with one out sophomore Nick Walker (Virginia Beach, VA.) drew a walk. Senior firstbaseman Taylor Ostrich (Carroll, IA) tripled them both in to tie the game at 2-2. Freshman leftfielder Matt Cogen (Franklin, TN.) followed with the game winning hit to bring home Ostrich with two outs.
In the top of the ninth Rutgers had runners on second and third, but ODU sophomore reliever Sam Sinnen (Virginia Beach, Va.) got a strikeout and groundout to save the game.
Higgins led ODU with three hits on the day, while Connor Myers (Middletown, MD.) had two for the Monarchs. Rutgers two runs came on RBI’s from RJ Devish and Tom Marcinczyk.
The third and final game of the series is Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
NOTE: Because of field conditions due to the inclement weather, the scheduled baseball game between ODU and Norfolk State on Tuesday, March 3 has been cancelled.
RU 000 110 000=2-9-0
ODU 000 000 03x=3-9-1
RU- McCoy, Bohnert(5), Yakopec(8),Young(8) and Devish
ODU- Benitez, Bainbridge(6), Diaz (6), S.Sinnen(9) and Perez
WP: Diaz(1-1), LP: Yakopec(0-1) Save: S.Sinnen(1)