ODU Baseball Team Rides Stellar Performance from the Bullpen and Holds Off Jacksonville, 4-3

By Harry Minium

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Survive and advance. That's the mantra of every team in the NCAA College Baseball Tournament.

And while the Monarchs faced a ton of adversity, they survived and advanced Friday night thanks in large part to their bullpen, defeating Jacksonville, 4-3, at Founders Park at the University of South Carolina in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Monarchs are the No. 1 seed in the regional but will be in hostile territory Saturday when they take on South Carolina at 7 in the winner's bracket game. The No. 2-seeded Gamecocks, who defeated Virginia earlier Friday, are expected to have more than 8,000 partisan fans behind them.

The victory was the first for ODU (43-14) in the NCAA tournament since 1995 and ended an 8-game tournament losing streak. The No. 11 seed in the NCAA tournament, ODU has now won eight in a row and 11 of its last 12 games.

Although Jacksonville (16-33) had the worst record in the NCAA tournament, the Dolphins entered this game on a hot streak, winning eight of their last 12 games, including two victories over Liberty, which defeated Duke earlier Friday in the NCAA tournament.

ODU Coach Chris Finwood warned that the Dolphins were better than their record and Jacksonville was in this game until the final out. 

Relief pitchers Jacob Gomez, Jason Hartline and Noah Dean shut out the Dolphins over the last eight innings. It was an uncharacteristic victory for ODU, which has won largely with its bats this season and leads the nation in home runs.



 "To win this time of the year, you've got to win in different ways," Finwood said. "The bullpen, they were the heroes today. Gomez, Hartline and Dean came in and threw up eight straight zeroes to allow us to come back and take the lead.

"They did a great job."

Finwood went with his best pitcher, Hunter Gregory, a senior from Chesapeake's Hickory High School, but Gregory clearly was not himself and was knocked out of the game by an injury in the top of the second inning.

He was hit on top of his knee by a ball smashed right up the middle and was on the ground for several minutes. Although he tried to come back and pitch, he could not. Finwood said after the game that he suffered a bad bruise, but that he will be able to pitch again this season.

Jacksonville had already scored three in the first and had a runner on base in the second, but Gomez cooled down the Dolphins, throwing 4.1 shutout innings. It was the longest outing of the season for the freshman from Rutherford, New Jersey. 

ODU got all of the offense it would need in the first and second innings.
 
Kevin Levari quickly cut the lead to one in the bottom of the first, driving in Kyle Battle with a towering home run that bounced 30 yards or so high off the center field batters eye. 



Then, in the bottom of the second, Battle sliced a double down the right field line, scoring Thomas Wheeler and Matt Coutney, to give the Monarchs a 4-3 lead.

Hartline came in relief of Gomez and also pitched magnificently, giving up just one hit and no runs in 2.1 innings.

Finwood lifted Hartline for reliever Noah Dean with one out and a man on base in the bottom of the ninth.

Dean gave up a hit, but on the final play of the game, scooped up a softly-hit ground ball and tossed it with his glove to first base for the out.

Finwood said playing South Carolina in its own stadium will be a challenge. But he said ODU got prepared last week in the Conference USA tournament, beating Louisiana Tech before a sellout crowd in Ruston, Louisiana. 

Asked what he's going to tell his players about the atmosphere Saturday night, Finwood said, "I'm going to tell them that it's going to be awesome. It's going to be like last Sunday, times, two.

"We've got to internalize and draw our energy from each other when you have that. You've got to get into the game, and then it's just playing ball after that.

"It will be a new experience for us playing in front of that kind of crowd. We're not going to run away from it. We'll be ready to play."

Battle, a senior who has battled injuries much of his career, said winning his first NCAA Tournament game "was just awesome experience. We've all waited so long for this. 



"I just can't wait for the atmosphere tomorrow night. It's going to be fun."

Finwood used up much of his bullpen Friday. 

"You've got to do whatever you can to win the game and then you work it out," he said. "We've got some perfectly capable guys to throw tomorrow." 

Ryne Moore (8-1) will start against South Carolina.

"We obviously need a good start from Moore to get us into that game. But Nick Pantos has been throwing the ball good. Aaron Holliday has been throwing the ball good, too," Finwood said.

"We'll try to mix and match it behind him. This is just what you have to do in postseason baseball."

Game Notes
The 4.2 innings of relief work was by far the longest outing for Gomez this season. Twice this season he pitched 2.2 innings, his previously long outing, both against Charlotte ... Battle walked for the 53rd time this season, tied for the second most in the country ... Hartline pitched 2.2 shutout innings, lowering his team-best ERA to 1.53 ... Battle delivered his 19th multi-hit game of the season ... ODU stole two or more bases for the seventh time in a game this season ... Noah Dean registered his ninth save of the season ... In both games at today's regional, both South Carolina and ODU had its pitchers removed from the game due to injury ... The win was ODU's first in the NCAA Tournament since 1995, when ODU defeated both Ole Miss and UCF ... The Monarchs had lost eight-straight tournament games ... Kenny Levari's first inning homer was ODU's 102nd of the season ... The 4 runs scored were the fewest score by ODU since a 4-1 victory over Rice on April 18.