ODU Baseball Team Rallies to Defeat South Alabama, 3-2, in the First Round of the Sun Belt Baseball Championship
Jacob Gomez picked up the victory for ODU in relief.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The road to the NCAA Tournament remains a long one for the Old Dominion baseball team, but the Monarchs won a game they had to win to keep their season alive Tuesday night.
Keyed by a home run from Maverick Stallings, and brilliant pitching from seniors Vincent Bashara and Jacob Gomez, ODU rallied to defeat South Alabama, 3-2, in a single-elimination play-in game at Riverwalk Stadium.
A loss would have ended ODU’s season. Instead, the Monarchs (30-24) take on regular-season champion Louisiana (40-16) on Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET. With eight teams remaining, the rest of the tournament is double-elimination.
Ranked 21st nationally by D1 Baseball, Louisiana is the Sun Belt leader in hitting and pitching and has won seven of its last eight games. The Rajin’ Cajuns swept a three-game series from ODU earlier this season in Lafayette, Louisiana.
ODU’s pitching has been outstanding this season and such was the case again Tuesday.
Bashara and Gomez combined to limit South Alabama to six hits and struck out 11 Jaguars. Bashara was credited with allowing both runs, but the second run scored after Gomez took over in relief.
“I didn’t start out the best,” Gomez said. “I started it off by hitting a batter and that led to a sacrifice bunt for a run. That was totally my fault.
“But after that, I was rolling with my cutter and my slider and setting them up with my fastball at the end. I just wanted to help my team as much as I can and save as much pitching as we could going into the actual tournament.”
ODU head coach Chris Finwood effusively praised his two senior pitchers.
“We had two seniors tonight who just did not want the season to end,” Finwood said. “They both really threw well tonight and fortunately, we only had to use two pitchers.”
ODU trailed, 2-0, after four innings and tied it up in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a home run from its ninth hitter, Stallings, who was the Sun Belt Player of the Week in the last week of the regular season.
Center fielder Steven Meier was hit by a pitch for the 24th time this season, and then stole second and went to third on a balk. Then, with one out and three balls and no strikes, Finwood gave Stallings a green light and he drove a towering home run well over the left field fence.
“It was a 3-0 pitch,” Finwood said. “We talked about it. He’s been hot. Why not give him the chance to swing with a runner on third?”
An inning later, the Monarchs took a 3-2 lead.
Third baseman Kenny Levari began the inning with a single, then moved to second on a passed ball.
First baseman Jake Ticer, who was hitting just .186, came through with a clutch hit, singling to right center field, scoring Levari scored easily.
“That was a big hit from Jake Ticer,” Finwood said.
It was a big night for Levari, who set a school record by playing in his 227th game, the most ever by a Monarch. Levari has played in every game the last four seasons.
With one out and a man on base in the bottom of the ninth, Levari made an uncharacteristic error when, after fielding a hot ground ball, he could not get the ball out of his glove in time.
Gomez walked over to Levari and said he told him, “I’ve got your back, Kenny. No one is going to score.
“We’ve been together here all four years.”
The Jaguars did not score, thanks in part to a nice play on a ground ball by Levari.
Gomez struck out Nathan Wood, and then Will Turner grounded sharply to Levari, who threw him out at first to end the game.
It was ODU’s first Sun Belt Conference tournament victory since the 1991 season when the tournament was held in Jacksonville, Florida. The Monarchs lost to James Madison last season in the play-in game.
South Alabama took an early, 1-0, lead with just one hit in the first inning.
Will Turner led off the inning by getting hit by a pitch. Then, with two outs and facing a full count, Mike Morgan singled softly up the middle.
Turner took off from first on the pitch and by the time the ball rolled to Meier, Turner was rounding third. He scored without a play at the plate.
South Alabama made it 2-0 in the top of the fifth on two well-placed sacrifice bunts.
Third baseman Tyler Borges doubled to center and then went to third on a sacrifice bunt by center fielder Rett Johnson. Turner then laid down a sac bunt to score Borges.
Finwood acknowledged that the Monarchs face a tall order against Louisiana.
“We know we have a heck of a challenge in front of us,” he said. “We play the No. 1 seed and they’re the best team in the league for a reason.
“We went down there early in the season and pitched really well but just didn’t score and got swept. We have another chance at them and we know we’ve got to do everything right to beat them.”