NORFOLK, Va. - In its second shutout in as many days, the Old Dominion (3-0-0, 0-0 C-USA) baseball team defeated Towson, 11-0 on Sunday afternoon. Jared Hancock's single to left field in the beginning of the fourth inning sparked the Monarch offense, adding three runs from Michael Marrale, Kyle Battle and Zach Coldsnow.
Matt Burch drove in Battle with an RBI single to start scoring for the Monarchs in the opening inning, which gave the Monarchs a 1-0 advantage through the fourth inning. In the third inning, the Monarchs nearly took a 4-0 lead but left three players on base after junior Tommy Bell struckout swinging.
Ahead 4-0 after seven and a half frames, the Monarchs added three more runs to head into the eighth with a 7-0 lead over the Tigers. In his first at bat in his collegiate career, Jeff LaRosa reached the base with a walk. During LaRosa's at bat, Bell advanced to second off a wild pitch. Tiger pitcher Kody Reeser struggled to close out the seventh inning allowing three Monarchs in the seventh to blow the game open.
Junior Nick Pantos pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing just four hits and striking out 10. Aaron Holiday and Ari Silverstein closed things out for ODU, pitching one inning each and not allowing one hit.
"Nick Pantos was fantastic. I thought he filled up the strike zone, a lot of ground balls and strikeouts and not a lot of hard contact. He gave us a chance when we were muddling through the game offensively and it was frustrating a bit but we hung in there and started scratching some runs in the game late," explained head coach Chris Finwood. "I thought Jared Hancock did a good job swinging the bat for us and so did true freshman Zach Coldsnow got his first college start. The bottom two true freshman, Coldsnow and Chris Dengler in the eight and nine hole were really productive for us so that was good to see."
The Monarchs tacked on four insurance runs in the eighth to close scoring, which featured hits from JUCO transfer Brock Gagliardi. The hit marked his first as a Monarch.
Towson (0-3-0, 0-0 CAA) was charged with one error and two wild pitches while the Monarchs played error free baseball. Overall, senior Burch and freshman Coldsnow recorded three RBIs each in their four at bats.
Up Next
ODU will continue its home stand with a weekend series against Holy Cross on Feb. 21-23 at the Bud Metheny Sports Complex.
Baseball Shuts Out Towson, 11-0 to Sweep on Opening Weekend
