BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Matt Coutney homered in both games of Friday's doubleheader as the Old Dominion baseball team split a pair of games with UAB to take the Conference USA road series.
Game 1: ODU 9, UAB 5
ODU (25-9, 8-7 C-USA) locked up the series with a 9-5 win in the first game behind home runs from Tommy Bell, Coutney and Carter Trice.
The Monarchs walked three times to load the bases in the first but couldn't push across a run. After going down in order in the second, Old Dominion put a run on the board in the third by way of a Bell solo homer – his fifth of the season.
A messy top of the fifth saw the Monarchs hang six runs to jump ahead 7-0. Kyle Edwards got the inning going with a leadoff walk before moving up 90 feet on a wild pitch. Bell followed with an infield single to put runners on the corners. With Kenny Levari at the dish, Edwards scampered home on a passed ball. Levari flied out for the first out of the inning before Thomas Ballard uncorked another wild pitch that moved Bell to third. Trice struck out for the second out, but Andy Garriola singled home Bell and Coutney followed with a two-run homer. Brock Gagliardi walked, and Robbie Petracci singled to chase Ballard from the. JC Sewell took over on the mound and immediately surrendered an RBI double to Thomas Wheeler and a run-scoring bunt single by Edwards.
UAB (22-13, 8-7) broke through against ODU starter Nick Pantos in the home half of the fifth to get one run back. Matthew Golda led off with a single and later moved up to second on a grounder to Levari. From there, Golda scored on a Darryl Buggs single, but Pantos limited the damage with a pair of strikeouts.
Pantos (5-0) successfully navigated traffic for much of his outing, holding UAB to a lone run on four hits with three walks and three strikeouts over five innings.
The two bullpens dueled in the sixth and seventh inning as Brad Dobzanski faced the minimum in each of his two innings. Trice provided an insurance run in the top of the eighth with his 13th homer of the season before Dobzanski left for Noah Dean in the bottom of the eighth.
Dobzanski pitched two innings and did not allow a hit while striking out one. He has not allowed a run over his last five innings of work.
Dean surrendered a leadoff double in the eighth but buckled down to strike out three. Wheeler doubled in the ninth to drive home Coutney to give ODU a 9-1 advantage.
The Blazers went down fighting in their half of the ninth, plating four runs on three hits, but Dean struck out Josh Sears to end the game.
ODU tallied 13 hits in game one, and all nine starters recorded at least one. Bell, Garriola, Coutney and Wheeler all had two hits apiece. Both of Wheelers' hits were doubles, and the native of Roy, Washington drove in two.
Game 2: UAB 7, ODU 3
The Blazers scored twice in the first and never trailed to split the doubleheader and avoid the series sweep. Sears opened the scoring with a two-run double off Sam Armstrong in the bottom of the first.
ODU got on the board in the third, when Wheeler led off with a single, stole second base and scored on a Levari single. UAB got the run back in the bottom of the inning with a solo shot.
Reliever Trey Fisher allowed two more runs on three hits in the bottom of the fifth as the home team went ahead 5-1. After going down in order in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, the Monarchs struck for two runs in the seventh on a two-run shot from Coutney. However, UAB canceled out those runs with two of its own in the bottom of the eighth.
Petracci hit a leadoff homer in the top of the ninth, and the Monarchs put runners on first and second. Wheeler singled and moved to second on a wild pitch, and pinch hitter Josh Trujillo walked. Bell struck out for the second out, and Levari grounded out to first to end the game.
Garriola, Coutney and Wheeler all had two hits in the second game. Coutney drove in two more runners.
Armstrong (2-2) was tagged with the loss after allowing three runs on five hits over four innings. Vincent Bashara allowed just one hit with four strikeouts over two innings.
The Monarchs play at William & Mary on Tuesday before returning home to host Florida Atlantic next Friday through Sunday.
Baseball Splits Doubleheader with UAB to Win Series
