CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Dylan Brown shut out Charlotte for eight innings and racked up a career high 13 strikeouts, TJ Aiken homered and drove in four runs, and Old Dominion Baseball got its first victory of the season Saturday as ODU defeated the 49ers, 4-2.
“Another good ball game,” said ODU Head Coach Chris Finwood. “Dylan was dominant and gave us eight shutout innings and we held on in the ninth.”
The Monarchs (1-4) opened the scoring for the fifth time as many games, plating two runs on as many hits in the top of the first. Efrain Morales led the off the game with a single through the right side and then took second base as Kainen Jorge was hit by a pitch. Tanner Schaedel drew a two-out walk to load the bases and Aiken then poked a ball to right field for an early 2-0 lead.
The 49ers (3-2) got a leadoff double in the first and a leadoff base hit in the second, but Charlotte was unable to manufacture any offense. That was in large part due to Brown. The junior left-hander from Lansdale, Pennsylvania retired 16 batters in a row. He struck out the side in the fourth inning and also retired the 49ers in order in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.
ODU got some insurance with another two runs in the sixth. With two outs and Tyler Zedalis reaching on a base on balls, Aiken connected on a 1-2 offering for a two-run homer to left field.
Brown finally handed the ball off to Hunter Baynes, who came in to face Charlotte in the ninth. The sophomore retired the first batter he faced, but issued a couple of walks and a single through the left side as the hosts loaded the bases with one out.
Charlotte’s Noah Furcht wore a pitch to give the 49ers their first run of the game, and the Monarchs brought in another reliever in Marco Levari. An ODU fielding error allowed Dawson Bryce to come home and trim ODU’s lead to 4-2, but Levari fanned the next two batters to clinch the victory.
“Learning how to win is a process that happens at different rates with different teams,” continued Finwood. “We have had a good chance to win all five of our games so far this year and it was nice to get over the hump.”
Brown (1-0) scattered two hits and walked two of the 28 batters he faced, and Levari earned the save with two strikeouts in 0.2 innings out of the pen.
Aiken finished 2-for-4 on the day with the two-run homer, his first of the season and third of his career. Jack Slater also turned in a 2-for-4 effort at the plate, Scotty Young went 1-for-4, and Efrain Morales collected ODU’s other hit in a 1-for-5 outing.
“Kyle Edwards made a number of big plays at shortstop as well. TJ Aiken was the star of offensively with all four RBIs coming with two outs and two strikes. A couple clutch hits for him really helped us out. The guys came out ready to play and played a good ball game.”
The win sets up a 1 p.m. rubber match at Hayes Stadium on Sunday.