NORFOLK, Virginia – Bryce Blaser hit an RBI double down the right field line to score
Matt Abshire with the go-ahead run, while
Carson Orton closed the door in the bottom of the 11th inning for his third save of the season as ULM evened the series with Old Dominion, 5-4 in 11 innings, Saturday afternoon at Bud Metheny Baseball Stadium.
After neither team had played extra innings in each of their first 40 games, ULM (19-23 overall, 7-13 Sun Belt Conference) and ODU (23-19, 10-10) played extras for the second-straight day after the Monarchs won 2-1 in 12 innings on Friday night. And for the second-straight game, pitching ruled the game for the Warhawks.
Chipper Menard (1-2) earned his first win of the season with his best performance of the year, throwing five shutout innings out of the bullpen, covering the sixth through 10th innings, allowing two hits with three walks and four strikeouts. Orton threw a scoreless ninth inning, allowing one walk for his 21st career save, moving him into second place all-time in program history.
Beau Blanchard also threw 3 1/3 shutout innings out of the bullpen, allowing two hits with one walk and three strikeouts.
Old Dominion opened the game with a three-run first inning. TJ Aiken tripled to right-center field and scored on a wild pitch for the 1-0 lead. Kyle Edwards singled and Luke Waters walked, setting up Jake Ticer's 2-RBI double off the right-center field wall for the 3-0 advantage as Warhawk starting pitcher
Daniel Gonzalez exited after just 1/3 of an inning. Blanchard entered and recorded the final two outs of the inning to keep the ODU lead at 3-0.
Blanchard settled in after that, keeping ODU off the board until leaving the game after the fourth inning.
ULM answered back in the top of the fourth inning.
Shawn Dalton Weatherbee walked and
Easton Winfield was hit by a pitch with one out.
Jake Haggard followed with a 2-RBI double that rolled to the right-center field wall to get within a run, 3-2. Two batters later,
Matt Abshire hammered a 2-run home run to left to put the Warhawks on top, 4-3. It was Abshire's fourth homer of the season, with all four coming on the road.
ODU tied the game back up in the sixth inning. Kenny Levari led off with a single and Steven Meier was hit by a pitch. After Menard came on in relief of
Brandon Brewer, Evan Holman attempted a bunt.
Jake Haggard fielded the bunt on one hop at third and threw to second for an out. Meier was called for an illegal slide at second on the play, which then made Holman out at first for a double play. However, Maverick Stallings snuck a bouncing ball down the first base line for an RBI double, bringing in Levari to knot the game at 4.
Menard settled in at that point and became locked in a pitchers' duel with ODU reliever Jacob Gomez, who entered the game in the top of the seventh inning.
ULM put runners on base in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, but was unable to regain the lead. In the eighth inning,
Michelle Artzberger hit a leadoff single and Weatherbee was hit by a pitch.
Easton Winfield grounded out to first to move Artzberger to third and Weatherbee to second. However, a strikeout and groundout got Gomez out of the jam.
Abshire hit a leadoff single in the top of the ninth and moved to second on
Kade Dupont's sacrifice bunt. However, Gomez induced a pop up and a strikeout to end the inning.
ODU had its best chance to win the game in the bottom of the ninth, but Menard and company found their way out of trouble. Aiken reached on an error to open the inning and Edwards followed with a double to put the potential winning run on third base with no outs. After ULM intentionally walked Waters to load the bases, head coach
Michael Federico brought
Jayson Zmejkoski in from the outfield and positioned him in the middle of the infield, giving ULM five infielders. Jake Ticer hit a hard ground ball to Artzberger at first. Artzberger threw home to Abshire, who threw to first to Dupont covering the base for a critical double play. With runners on second and third and two outs, Menard got Alex Bouche to ground to Lunsford at shortstop to end the inning and send the game to extra innings.
Neither team was able to get anything going in the 10th inning, with Menard working a perfect 10th inning to end his outing.
ULM finally broke through in the 11th inning. Abshire reached with a one-out single to center for his third hit of the day, chasing Gomez from the game. A wild pitch with two outs moved Abshire into scoring position. Blaser then hit a double over 6-7 first baseman Ticer and down the right field line to drive in Abshire for the 5-4 lead.
Orton entered for the second-straight game in the bottom of the 11th and, after a one-out walk, induced the game-ending double play ball to secure the win.
Abshire had three hits, two RBIs and scored twice, while Lunsford added three hits. Blaser tallied two hits with an RBI. Weatherbee reached base four times with two walks and was hit by a pitch twice.
Edwards had two hits to lead ODU, while Ticer had two RBIs. Gomez (1-2) suffered the loss, allowing one run on four hits with two walks and four strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings out of the bullpen.
ULM and ODU wrap up the series at 10:30 a.m. EDT/9:30 a.m. CDT Sunday.
