MURFREESBORO, TN—The Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee (14-10/6-1) defeated ODU (13-9/3-4) in a C-USA opener, 7-2 at Reese Smith, Jr. Field.
ODU took an early lead in the third inning when Taylor Ostrich (Carroll, IA.) RBI groundout brought home sophomore Nick Walker (Virginia Beach, VA.). In the ODU fifth, Walker drew a walk with two outs, then stole second, third and home to cut Middle’s lead to 3-2.
Junior outfielder Connor Myers (Middletown, MD.) extended his hit streak to nine games, and lead-off hitter PJ Higgins (Wallingford, CT.) reached base four times with three walks and a hit. The Monarchs left 12 runners on base as Blue Raider pitchers struckout 13, but issued 10 walks to Monarch hitters.
Middle scored three runs in the third with the help of an RBI triple by Ronnie Jebavy and RBI single from Jared Allen.
Middle Tennessee was led by Kevin Dupress with three hits and two runs scored, followed by Jared Allen, and Mike Adkins with two hits each. Allen also knocked in two runs for the Blue Raiders.
The two teams play on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. (ET) in a nationally televised contest on the American Sports Network. The contest can be seen locally in Hampton Roads on Channel 33 (WTVZ over the air) or channels 2 or 1002 on Cox. Listen to the game live on STAR1310 AM with Doug Ripley providing the radio play by play.
ODU 001 010 000 =2-5-2
MT 003 020 11x=7-13-1
ODU- Tomchick, S.Sinnen (5),Josephs (5) and Perez
MT- Frebis, Kessler(6), Foriest(9) and Adkins
WP:Johnathan Frebis( 4-2)
LP : Greg Tomchick ( 3-2)