NORFOLK, VA (WTKR)- Coming off a rough stretch of games that saw Old Dominion with five straight games against ranked opponents, the Monarchs got back to doing what they do.
ODU used solid pitching, timely hitting and strong defense to top James Madison, 7-1, to open a weekend series at Bud Metheny Baseball Complex on Friday night.
"Every team we play in the conference the rest of the way is right around you, either a game behind you, a game in front of you," Chris Finwood said of his message to his team. "If you want to finish in front of them, you've just got to beat them. That's where we're at and when we play like that, we played a good brand of baseball tonight."
The victory moves the silver and blue into a tie with the Dukes in the Sun Belt standings, both with 6-7 league records.
Old Dominion started the scoring in the second inning. Maverick Stallings and Evan Holman each connected on RBI singles before T.J. Aiken drove in another run with a bunt single to give the Monarchs a 3-0 lead after two frames.
Kyle Edwards added a run in the fifth inning, scoring from third when Steven Meier was caught in a rundown and Stallings added another RBI single in the sixth to give ODU a 5-0 advantage. Meier's sacrifice fly in the seventh and an eighth inning RBI single by Holman rounded out the scoring for the Monarchs.
Two pitchers shared the heavy lifting for the silver and blue. Jay Cassidy opened by throwing four innings of shutout baseball, allowing just one hit, walking one batter and striking out six. John Holobetz took over and tossed the final five frames, surrendering just one run in the ninth inning and striking out three.
The victory comes on the heels of a five game stretch that saw the Monarchs go 1-4 against ranked opponents. Friday's result was a positive improvement to start the second half of the season.
"Confidence is such a big part of college athletics," Finwood noted. "When the kids feel better about themselves, they play better, so that was a big win for us tonight."
Old Dominion and JMU continue their series Saturday at 4:00.
