NORFOLK, VA—The ODU Baseball Monarchs (12-7/3-2) defeated No. 8 Rice (15-9/6-2) for the second straight day with a 9-8 victory at the Bud Metheny Baseball Complex. The win is ODU’s fourth straight and 10th win in their last 12 games.
Rice jumped out to a 5-1 lead after three innings, but the Monarchs rallied for six runs in the fourth led by a two-run homer by senior catcher Mike Perez (Fairfax Station, VA.) and a bases clearing double by senior firstbaseman Taylor Ostrich (Carroll, IA.) along with three Owl errors to take a 7-5 lead, and knocking out Rice starter Blake Fox, the pre-season C-USA Pitcher-of-the-Year who entered the game 20-0 for his college career.
Rice rallied to tie the game at 7-7 with a solo homer by Kirby Taylor in the fifth and a RBI sacrifice fly by Ryan Chandler in the sixth inning.
In the bottom of the sixth junior centerfielder Connor Myers (Middletown, MD.) doubled down the leftfield line to scored senior Josh Eldridge (Lorton, Va.) and Perez later singled home Myers for a 9-7 lead.
Rice threatened in the eighth with two hits, but ODU reliever and winning pitcher Thomas Busbice (3-0) got out of the jam with a double play and a groundout to end the threat. In the ninth inning Rice cut the ODU lead to 9-8 on an RBI single by Kirby Taylor and eventually loaded the bases, but sophomore lefthanded reliever Jake Josephs (Fairfax Station, VA.) got Connor Teykl to fly out to sophomore Nick Walker (Virginia Beach, VA.) in right to end the game and giving the Monarchs the series. It was Josephs first save of the season.
Taylor Ostrich led the Monarchs with three hits and four RBI on the day. Mike Perez added two hits and three RBI.
Rice which has now dropped three games this week had four players with three hits in Ryan Chandler, Ford Stanback Leoon Byrd and Kirby Taylor.
The third and final game of the series is Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Bud Metheny Complex.
Rice 302 011 001=8-16-5
ODU 100 602 00x=9-10-2
Rice- Fox, Pettitte(4), Williamson(6), Ditman(6) and Kopycinski
ODU- Benitez, Busbice(6), Josephs(9) and Perez
WP: Busbice(3-0) Save: Joseph(1) LP: Williamson(1-2)
HR: ODU-Perez(2), Rice- Taylor(1)