Old Dominion Beats Baseball 9-2 in Series Opener

Friday, March 1

Norfolk, VA

3:00 p.m.

Temple University

2-4

Old Dominion

4-3

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Temple	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	2	6	1
OLD DOMINION	0	0	0	5	3	0	1	0	X	9	9	1

Old Dominion Beats Baseball 9-2 in Series Opener

3.1.13 | Baseball

Box Score

NORFOLK, Va.— Old Dominion's batting order needed only one go-around for it to figure out Temple senior left-handed pitcher Dan Moller. In Friday's weekend series opener at Bud Metheny Complex, Moller opened the game by retiring eight of the first 11 batters he faced, but in the fourth trouble set in for the southpaw. The Monarch's got their first four men on base in the frame and went on to rip Moller for five runs, en route to a 9-2 win over Temple to drop the Owls to 2-4 on the year.

Looking to respond to ODU's five-spot, the Owls went to the top of the fifth and looked to take advantage of the Monarchs' Dean Ali, who pitched well through the first four innings. Redshirt senior Matt Elko got the offense going by leading off the top of the fifth with a double down the left field line. Ensuing ground outs by freshmen Michael D'Acunti and Jimmy Kerrigan, led to Elko making his way all the way around to get TU on the board.

The Monarchs went back to the dish and picked up where it left off, hitting Moller up for another three runs. With two men already on base, ODU's third base coach called for the double steal, to put two potential runs in scoring position. Catcher Michael Perez then drilled a pitch into left field for a two-run RBI double to boost the Monarchs' lead to a 7-1 cushion. Junior Tyler Urps provided the last trun that was charged to Moller when he singled to score Perez.

Moller (0-2) closed out his line after the fifth inning with eight runs on eight hits, while walking three and striking out one hitter.
Redshirt sophomore Zach White was handed the ball when the Owls took the field for the sixth inning. White looked impressive in his first inning of work, getting three hitters to fly out and throwing a strikeout to Jordan Negrini. The strikeout pitch to Negrini was dropped by D'Acunti, causing White to have to fight for one more out in the inning.

Old Dominion capped its run total in the seventh with White still in the game. Leading off the inning Ben Verlander slammed a pitch deep into right field, allowing him to make it all the way to third base. After surrendering a walk to Perez and getting PJ Higgins to ground out, White's day ended after 1.1 inning of work.

Making his season debut, sophomore Adam Dian took over. Facing his first batter, he lost control on his delivery, causing Verlander to trot home on the wild pitch. Dian remained composed and looked sharp for the remainder of his appearance. The right-handed reliever struck out the next two batters he faced to get TU out of the inning before going onto the eighth and setting the Monarchs down in order.

Last week in Blacksburg, Va., the Owls found ways to generate runs in the final two innings. On Friday against ODU they looked to continue that, but had difficulty as senior Jordan Queja and sophomore Nick Lustrino were quick outs to begin the frame, but junior Derek Peterson kept the inning alive when he was walked. Senior Henry Knabe, who was the hero in last Sunday's comeback against Holy Cross, ripped a single up the middle after Peterson stole second base. Peterson came all the way around to score on Knabe's base hit to make it 9-2, but ODU kept the Owls from doing any more damage.

Knabe was Temple's only batter with a multi-hit game, as he went 2-for-4 out of the cleanup spot. The senior third basemen is batting .450 with nine hits through five games, which has him ranked second on the team behind Lustrino (.476, 10 hits), who owns a .593 on base percentage and a .762 slugging percentage.

Temple (2-4) and Old Dominion (4-3) will go at it again on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. at the Bud Metheny Complex. The Owls will send junior right-hander Matt Hockenberry to the mound for his second start of the year, where he will be opposed by ODU lefthander Ryan Yarbrough.