NORFOLK, Va. – The Old Dominion baseball team finished off a three-game sweep of the Fordham Rams on Sunday with a doubleheader win taking game one 11-3 and game two 19-1 on Sunday afternoon at the Bud Metheny Ballpark.
"I thought it was Sam Armstrong's best outing since he's been at ODU with 12 strikeouts no walks and six strong innings. Obviously, the offense was clicking today hitting some home runs and a lot of extra base hits," said ODU Head Coach Chris Finwood. "I thought Dylan Brown threw the ball real well for the second start of his career and the bullpen was very good. All in all, really a strong day. I was proud of how the guys came out with energy and were able to sweep a doubleheader."
In game one, ODU (7-1) got the ball rolling in the second inning as Alex Bouche smacked a home run to left center and four batters later Robbie O'Neal followed with a two-run blast to center for a 3-0 lead. The lead went to 4-0 as Camden Grimes joined the home run brigade with a shot to left center.
After giving up a run in the top of the fifth, the Monarchs answered with a Hunter Fitz-Gerald solo shot to center for a 5-1 advantage.
Fordham (0-6) put up a pair of runs in the eighth, but ODU broke it wide open in the home half throwing up a six-spot. O'Neal with a two-run double, Fitz-Gerald with a two-run triple to go with RBI doubles from Chris Dengler and Jake Ticer.
O'Neal was 2-for-4 with four driven in, Fitz-Gerald was 2-for-5 with three driven in and Bouche was 2-for-4 with a run and RBI to lead the Monarchs. Sam Armstrong went six innings and had 12 strikeouts to go with four hits allowed to earn his first win. Jacob Gomez struck out three in 1.1 innings for the save.
In game two, the Monarchs didn't waste time getting on the board putting up 13 runs in the first three innings. After allowing a run in the top of the first, Luke Waters answered with a solo shot to left center. Kenny Levari drove in Ticer with a single and Thomas Wheeler drove in Bouche with a single for a 3-1 lead after one.
ODU put up five in the second behind a two-run blast to left field from Waters, which was followed by a Fitz-Gerald smack to right center. Levari and Wheeler had RBI hits later in the inning as ODU went up 8-1.
They put up another five-spot in the third as Fitz-Gerald has a two-run double, Ticer with a two-run home run to right and an RBI single from Tyler Wheeler for a 13-1 Monarchs lead.
ODU closed the scoring with its second six-run inning of the day in the bottom of the sixth as Josh Trujillo had a two-run triple, Levari and Dengler with RBI doubles, an RBI groundout from Waters and a run via a wild pitch.
Levari topped a 19-hit outing for the Monarchs with a 4-for-5 day adding three runs and driving in three.
Waters was 3-for-5 with three scored and four driven in, Ticer was 3-for-5 with two scored and two driven in, while Thomas Wheeler was 3-for-5 with two driven in to pace the outburst. Dylan Brown got his first win going five innings with five strikeouts.
ODU is back in action on Wednesday hosting William & Mary at 3 p.m.