MONROE, La. – Old Dominion baseball scored in each of the first five innings as the Monarchs beat ULM 13-1 on Saturday afternoon to earn their first Sun Belt series win of the season.
ODU opened the scoring in the top of the first. After Luke Waters doubled to right center to lead off the game, ULM walked Hunter Fitz-Gerald and Jake Ticer to load the bases. Waters then ran the final 90 feet home as Alex Bouche grounded into a double play. The Monarchs (17-2, 2-0 Sun Belt) added some insurance in the second thanks to a solo home run by Camden Grimes and an RBI single from Chris Dengler.
A pair of doubles from Bouche and Grimes made it a 4-0 lead in the third, and a sacrifice fly by Ticer in the fourth gave ODU a 5-0 cushion. Riley Davis doubled in Davis Meche to get the Warhawks (7-13, 0-2) on the board in the home half of the inning, but ODU pulled away with another four runs in the fifth. Robbie O'Neal pushed the lead to 7-1 with a two-run homer down the left-field line. Dengler was then hit by a pitch and came around on a Waters triple to the gap in left, and Waters crossed the plate on a Fitz-Gerald ground out to first.
The Monarchs hung another four-spot on the scoreboard in the seventh. With one out and the bases loaded, Fitz-Gerald fouled out to left field and that was deep enough down the line for O'Neal to tag up. A pair of ULM wild pitches allowed Dengler to score before Ticer drew a walk to put runners on the corners. Bouche and Edwards then rounded out the scoring with back-to-back RBI base-hits to the outfield.
Sam Armstrong (4-0) turned in another strong performance, limiting the Warhawks to one run on four hits and two walks. He tallied four strikeouts in a 5.2-inning start. Joey DeChiaro tossed 1.1 inning in relief, while Ron Cole and Kyle Scrape came into the game for one inning each.
"I thought Sam threw the ball very well today," said head coach Chris Finwood. "Attacked the strike zone and kept their hitters off-balance with his pitches. It was a solid outing for him."
Four Monarchs finished with multi-hit outings. Waters batted 4-for-6 with two doubles, a triple, four runs scored and an RBI. Grimes and Dengler both went 3-for-4, doubled and scored twice. Grimes added one home run and two RBIs to his totals while Dengler drove in one run and swiped two bags. Bouche hit 2-for-5 with one double, one run, one RBI and one walk. O'Neal (1-for-4) contributed the two-run homer, three runs and one base on balls.
"Obviously we swung the bat pretty well today up and down the lineup," continued Finwood. "Cam Grimes and Luke Waters led the way with a bunch of extra-base hits and driving some runs in. It was a good performance for us after a tough extra-innings win on Friday night. Now we need to come out and play well tomorrow. It's hard to sweep people on the road certainly, and it's an early game, so we will have to play well to have a chance to win."
The two teams wrap up the series with a 12 p.m. ET start on Sunday.