MONTGOMERY, Ala. – A baseball season filled with adversity, and a ton of time on the road, came to an end for Old Dominion Friday night as the Monarchs fell to No. 22 Troy, 9-4, in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament elimination round at Riverwalk Stadium.
The Monarchs (22-31) fell behind, 4-0, in the first inning, and was never quite able to recover.
ODU’s bullpen, which has been the Monarch’s Achilles Heel this season, held up pretty well for six innings, but then the Trojans broke the game open with four runs in the seventh.
ODU and Troy each had 11 hits and ODU pitchers struck out 10 Trojans. But between hit batters and walks, the Monarch pitching staff gave Troy 10 free baserunners.
"That's been our nemesis all season," said Chris Finwood, ODU's head coach. "We gave them 10 freebies and you can't do that with a good offensive club."
Troy (39-20) advances to Saturday’s semifinals to face No. 12 Southern Miss at 10 a.m. The Trojans must beat the Golden Eagles twice to get to Sunday’s championship game.
Because ODU's Bud Metheny Ballpark is undergoing a $24 million renovation, the Monarchs did not play a game on campus.
They traveled nearly 14,000 miles to venues such as Auburn and Georgia Tech, and claimed four victories over Top 25 teams – at Auburn, Southern Miss and Troy and another victory over Troy in the first round of the Sun Belt Tournament.
The Monarchs played 16 “home” games at Harbor Park and Hampton’s War Memorial Stadium, 31 on the road and six on neutral sites. And given the strength of the non-conference schedule, a winning record would have been something of a miracle.
"What we went through this season is something no one can really understand," Finwood said. "You have to experience it to understand what it's like.
"We didn't have a normal home crowd ever. There's a reason you win more games at home and our home games were played on a field where we never practiced and only played a few games.
"But these guys came to play. They finished sixth in one of the best leagues in the country. So they should hold their heads high.
"Although we had a losing record, which is a rarity for ODU baseball, just playing the schedule we did, playing all on the road, that's extremely difficult. And we competed very hard and very well over the course of the year."
Troy’s Steven Meier, a transfer from ODU, hit his ninth home run of the season to give Troy an early 2-0 lead. Leftfielder Mike Bello, Troy’s eighth batter, then singled through the left side, scoring Gavin Schrader and Brooks Bryan.
ODU Pitching Coach Mike Marron then called upon his bullpen, and Kellen Davis, the redshirt junior from Media, Pennsylvania, who had saves in victories at Auburn and Southern Miss, came in to put out the fire.
He struck out shortstop Jakob Wax to end the inning, and then threw 2 2/3 more shutout innings that gave ODU a chance to chip into the lead.
The Monarchs halved the lead in the second. Maverick Stallings singled and Scotty Young doubled, giving ODU baserunners on second and third. Catcher Evan Holman then singled to left field, scoring them both.
Then, in the fourth, with two outs and two Troy players on base, Bailey Matela relieved Davis. Shortstop Kyle Edwards then made a diving catch of a line shot to end the scoring threat.
The Monarchs got another sterling defensive play from right fielder Luke Waters in the bottom of the sixth. Troy’s Jimmy Janicki singled to right, driving in Wax. However, Waters made a near-perfect throw to Holman, who tagged Bryan Brooks out at the plate.
Troy then broke the game open in the seventh, scoring four runs.
Stallings, the senior from Apopka, Florida, hit his ninth home run of the season in the eighth, driving in Zach Leite, who got on base with a triple. But the Trojans ended the inning with a double play and reliever Colby Freida shut out the Monarchs in the ninth.
Edwards, a senior from Virginia Beach, said he and his teammates knew this would be a difficult season.
"For three years we could just walk 10 steps across 43rd Street to get to our field" for home games, he said. "But we agreed that we were going to go on the road all season, without any complaints.
"It was definitely tough. It was a challenge. But we just took it head on and tried to do our best every day."
