Baseball Slams 15 Hits in 11-4 Win at WKU

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Matt Coutney hit a grand slam and drove in five, while Kenny Levari went 4-for-5 to lift Old Dominion University baseball to an 11-4 win Friday night in Bowling Green.
 
The game was scoreless until the third inning when Kyle Edwards and Thomas Wheeler walked and Josh Trujillo reached on a bunt single. Coutney slammed the first pitch he saw from WKU pitcher Lane Diuguid over the right field wall. Andy Garriola by hitting an 0-2 pitch over the left field fence to give the Monarchs a 5-0 lead.
 
Ty Crittenbereger and Tristin Garcia hit RBI singles off of ODU starter Nick Pantos in the bottom of the third to make the score 5-2.
 
WKU (18-35, 7-22 C-USA) cut the lead to 5-3 in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Jackson Gray.
 
Old Dominion (37-15, 18-11 C-USA) tacked on the insurance runs in the sixth as Levari delivered a one-out single and moved to second as Chris Dengler reached on an error. Levari moved to third on an Edwards fly out and after a Wheeler walk, Trujillo singled to score Levari and Dengler. Coutney and Garriola followed with back-to-back RBI singles to push the lead to 9-3.
 
The Monarchs added single runs in the seventh and eighth to continue to push the game out of reach. Edwards knocked in a run with a single in the seventh and Brock Gagliardi delivered an RBI double in the eighth.
 
Jacob Gomez allowed a seventh inning run but left the bases loaded, as he pitched 3.1 innings of three-hit ball, striking out seven and allowing one walk to earn the win. Pantos pitched 4.2 innings and allowed three runs, two earned on five hits with four strikeouts.
 
Coutney and Garriola each had three hits and a homer, while Coutney drove in five, Garriola had two RBIs. Wheeler, Trujillo and Dengler each had two hits as ODU racked up 15 hits.
 
ODU and WKU play the regular season finale tomorrow at 2 p.m. The Monarchs are currently tied for third place in C-USA with UTSA and Florida Atlantic. ODU can finish as high as third with a win and no worse than seventh.