MONTGOMERY, Ala. – After painting itself as the Cinderella of the Guardian Credit Union Sun Belt Conference Championship on Wednesday night, the Old Dominion baseball team played with a ton of heart and poise for the third time in three nights on Thursday.
But a worn-out pitching staff could not hold off No. 5 seed Georgia Southern, which rallied to claim an 8-6 victory in a game that ended early Friday morning at Riverwalk Stadium.
The Monarchs rallied to defeat No. 9 seed South Alabama on Tuesday and then stunned top-seeded Louisiana on Wednesday. A victory against Georgia Southern would have sent the Monarchs into Saturday’s semifinal round.
Instead, ODU will meet James Madison Friday night at 7:30 ET. A victory would send ODU into Saturday’s semifinals, where the Monarchs would need to beat Georgia Southern twice to advance to Sunday’s championship round.
A defeat will end ODU’s season.
The game was a back and forth affair, and each time Georgia Southern scored, the Monarchs seemed to rally.
But with one out in the eighth, TJ McKenzie delivered a two-run triple that gave the Eagles an 8-6 lead, and the Monarchs did not respond in the ninth.
Pinch hitter Bryce Jones walked in the top of the ninth for ODU, and Steven Meier, who had a home run earlier in the game, hit a sharp line drive to the left side of the infield. However, it went straight to third baseman Jarrett Brown, who gloved the ball.
The Monarchs did not threaten again.
ODU (31-25), which has four victories over nationally ranked teams, has won 12 of its last 19 games, but will have to win the Sun Belt to advance to the NCAA Tournament.
Baseball is often a game of inches and head coach Chris Finwood said the ball just bounced Georgia Southern’s way.
“It was their day. We had a couple of balls, six inches either way and they drop in. And then they hit one down the line and it just falls in,” he said.
“That’s baseball. It was their night. Tip your hat to them because they deserved to win.”
The Monarchs took an early 1-0 lead, but in what foreshadowed problems to come, they could have had more.
With two runners on base and one out, right fielder Luke Waters singled to center field, scoring shortstop Kyle Edwards, who reached base on a fielder’s choice. Waters had two hits and four RBIs for ODU.
Kenny Levari, who reached base after being hit by a pitch, advanced to second. Georgia Southern pitcher Ty Fisher then walked first baseman Jake Ticer to load the bases.
But Fisher then settled down, forcing Meier to line out to second and striking out designated hitter Nick Mueller. ODU stranded three runners in that inning and 11 overall.
ODU struck again in the fourth inning when, with two outs, Fisher walked ODU catcher Evan Holman. Second baseman Maverick Stallings sent a line drive to the fence in left center, and Holman scored without a play at the plate.
ODU starting pitcher Dylan Brown got the Monarchs off to a great start. He struck out seven of the first nine batters he faced and finished with a career high nine Ks.
He did not allow a hit until Sean Smith dribbled a slow roller for an infield single to the right side in the bottom of the fourth.
Brown then struck out Kent Schmidt but hit Brown with a pitch to put two men on base. Sam Blancato then hit his ninth home run of the season to give Georgia Southern a 3-2 lead.
ODU wasted little time in retaking the lead. Edwards walked and Levari was hit by a pitch. With two outs, Waters then drove a line drive home run 50 feet beyond the left field fence to give the Monarchs a 5-3 lead.
Then, in the sixth inning, ODU had two men in scoring position with no outs and loaded the bases with two out. But Ticer flied out to center field to end the threat.
Finwood said the Monarchs missed several scoring chances, but said the missed opportunity in the sixth was a huge blow.
“I thought the game changed a little at that point,” he said. “No outs and two men in scoring position and we didn’t score. That gave them some momentum.
“In games like this, things like that come back to bite you. In all of these games, you can find breadcrumbs here and there where you say, if we did this or if we did that. But that’s the big one that stands out in my mind.”
With the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom of the sixth, Blancato tied the game with a single, driving in two runs. But reliever Brandon Pond, who took over from Jay Cassady, got three outs to get out of the inning with a huge helping hand from Ticer.
With one out, Ticer made a diving catch of an attempted sacrifice bunt. Had he not caught the ball, the Eagles would have scored. Pond then forced JD Kaiser to fly out, ending the inning.
Ticer injured his glove hand making the catch. Athletic trainer Hana Ogino quickly taped it up in the dugout, and Ticer returned to the field temporarily, but did not return the following inning.
Meier put ODU back ahead minutes later in the top of the seventh with a leadoff home run, his sixth of the season, to give the Monarchs a 6-5 lead. But the rest of the game belonged to the Eagles.
Georgia Southern tied it in the bottom of the seventh when Schmidt hit a pop fly down the left field line that fell in between three Monarch players, scoring Tate.
ODU finished off the game with two pitchers who combined to hold South Alabama to two runs on Tuesday night. Vincent Bashara, who started against South Alabama, and Jacob Gomez, who picked up the win in relief, could not hold the Eagles back.
“Playing that extra game, we were running a little bit on fumes,” Finwood said. Bashara and Gomez “didn’t have their normal stuff. We were trying to get one out of each of them and Jacob could not land his breaking ball.”
ODU took two of three games against fourth-seeded JMU earlier this season in Norfolk, but with its pitching staff worn down, Finwood said “some of our younger guys are going to have to step up.
“That’s the way it goes in conference tournaments. We’ve got to bounce back tomorrow.”
