STATESBORO, Ga. – Old Dominion baseball secured its third Sun Belt series win in as many weeks as the Monarchs defeated Georgia Southern 12-7 on Saturday night at J.I. Clements Stadium.
The victory marked No. 350 for head coach Chris Finwood in his time at ODU. Finwood is in his 12th season leading the Monarchs (22-5, 7-1 Sun Belt) and is now eight wins away from reaching 600 for his career.
"I thought our guys showed a lot of toughness tonight," Finwood said afterwards. "A bunch of big two-out hits tonight. Robbie O'Neal had a couple doubles that helped us break open a close game. Luke Waters and Kenny Levari also had some big hits for us."
O'Neal doubled twice and drove in four runs as he finished 2-for-3 with one run and a pair of walks. Waters also tallied four RBIs in a 2-for-5 outing. He belted a three-run homer, came around twice and also earned a base on balls. Levari hit 2-for-5 with a double, two runs, two RBIs and one walk while Thomas Wheeler batted 1-for-4 with one double, two runs, one walk and a stolen base.
Jacob Gomez (1-0) earned his first win of the season with 3.1 innings out of the pen. The lefthander out of Rutherford, New Jersey gave up two runs, one of them earned, on three hits and two walks. He also added one strikeout to his totals. Sam Armstrong allowed four runs on five hits and three walks, striking out five in a four-inning start.
"Sam battled, but he didn't have his best stuff in the strike zone and was quite erratic," continued Finwood. "Jacob had his best outing of the year for us in relief, and Robert Cook was very impressive at the end of the game."
ODU struck first with four runs on three hits in the top of the second inning. After Levari singled to center field and Wheeler walked, O'Neal doubled to the gap in left for the first run of the game. With two outs, Waters added three more runs with a deep fly to right center.
The Monarchs went up 7-0 with another three runs in the third. With two outs and the bases loaded, O'Neal came through yet again with a double down the right-field line. The Eagles (13-14, 4-4) were able to get a run back in the home half of the frame as Jarrett Brown led off with a homer to right center.
Levari doubled in Hunter Fitz-Gerald and Alex Bouche for a 9-1 lead midway through the fourth, but the hosts closed the gap with three runs on as many hits in the bottom of the inning. A Sam Blancato sacrifice fly in the sixth trimmed the ODU lead to 9-5.
GS retired the first two ODU batters in the seventh, but the Monarchs loaded the bases thanks to singles from Waters and Camden Grimes and a walk by Fitz-Gerald. Bouche then drew a five-pitch walk and Jake Ticer was hit by a pitch for an 11-5 cushion. Wheeler made it 12-5 in the eighth as he doubled to right and later scored as Waters reached on a fielder's choice.
The Eagles pushed across a run in the eighth and added another in the ninth, but Cook struck out one and induced a pair of fly outs to end the game.
ODU will go for the series sweep tomorrow as the Monarchs and Eagles meet for a 1 p.m. finale.
"We know how difficult it is to win games at a storied program like Georgia Southern, so we're very happy with winning the series here and will fight our tails off to try and win the ball game tomorrow," Finwood said.