NORFOLK, VA (WTKR)- The Monarchs have a chance to strengthen their grip on the top of the Sun Belt baseball standings over the next 10 days, but a tough stretch got off to a rough start on Thursday.
Slade Wilks homered and drove in two runs and Tanner Hall threw 7.2 innings of one-run baseball, powering Southern Mississippi past Old Dominion, 4-2, at Bud Metheny Baseball Stadium.
"It was a good ballgame. We didn't play poorly" ODU head coach Chris Finwood said. "I thought Blake Morgan pitched really well for us again, second time in a row, and it's just another game. Now the next one's the biggest game of the year."
Hall and Morgan traded scoreless frames through the first three innings, but Wilks got the Golden Eagles on the board with a solo home run in the top of the fourth. Danny Lynch added a double down the right field line to plate two more runs and put the silver and blue in a 3-0 hole.
Wilks would add an RBI single in the fifth inning to extend the lead to 4-0.
The Monarch bats finally woke up in the eighth. Logan Duffy belted a solo home run to right field to get ODU on the board and the squad continued its fight in the bottom of the ninth. Thomas Wheeler hit an RBI triple down the right field line into the corner to pull the home team to within two, but Robbie O'Neal struck out to end the game, serving as the tying run at the plate.
The loss drops ODU's record to 22-7, 7-3 in Sun Belt play. Southern Mississippi improves to 18-10, 6-4 in the conference.
"Every Friday, if we've gotten beat, we've come back on Saturday and won behind Sam Armstrong," Finwood pointed out. "The guys just gotta get ready to go. It's baseball. We lost a tough, well-pitched game today and you've got to bounce back and be ready to go in the next one."
The two teams are scheduled to resume their series on Friday at 6:00 PM.
