Marshall University Athletics
@HerdBaseball Falls in Series Opener at Old Dominion
4/28/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Box Score (PDF)
NORFOLK, Va. - The Marshall baseball team fell in its Conference USA series opener on Friday evening at Old Dominion, 14-5, at the Bud Metheny Complex.
The Thundering Herd drops to 20-22 (8-11 C-USA). Sophomore starting pitcher Wade Martin (3-3) earned the setback by allowing nine runs on 10 hits through four innings of work. The Monarchs improve to 29-12 (13-6 C-USA). Starting pitcher Sam Sinnen (2-3) collected his second win after throwing six innings and allowed one run on eight hits.
Cory Garrastazu led off the game with a double to right field. The Miami native moved over to third on a Sam Finfer ground out to the ODU second baseman. The Thundering Herd took an early one-run lead after Shane Hanon hit a RBI single to left field.
The Marshall lead didn't last long as Old Dominion quickly responded with two runs in the following half inning. The Monarchs led off the frame with a single to right field by Kyle Battle. Jared Young drove in Battle with a double to right-center field. After a sacrifice bunt to move Young over to third, Vinnie Pasquantino hit a RBI sacrifice fly to left field.
Scoring kept coming into twos for Old Dominion in the bottom of the second with two outs. Battle hit an RBI infield single to the shortstop, while Young had a RBI single to center field.
The Monarchs put the game out of reach by putting up a five-run fifth inning and three-run sixth inning, making it 12-1. Old Dominion scored off a solo home run, a single, four doubles and a sacrifice fly over the two innings.
The Thundering Herd got a run back in the top of the seventh. Tyler Ratliff led off with a triple that was just shy of clearing the fence in center field. Finfer drove in Ratliff for his fourth RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly to center field. ODU responded once again with two runs in the following half inning.
Marshall brought its deficit back to single digits in the top of the eighth inning. Billy Sager led off by reaching on an error by the ODU first baseman. After a Herd strikeout and a pop up, Ratliff singled back to the pitcher. Finfer took the first pitch he saw and blasted it over the right field wall for a three-run homer. It was the senior's team-high 14th homer and 43rd RBI of the season. Finfer leads Conference USA in home runs.
"I've just been trying to put good at-bats together to get the job done," Finfer said. "I like to be the guy that steps up for the team and pick up the RBIs. We hit a lot of balls hard tonight and we need to keep going at it."
10 members of the Thundering Herd combined for 14 hits. Ratliff recorded his 13th multi-hit game by going 3-for-5 with two runs scored. Andrew Zban and Sager each had two hits.
Jacob Bradley, Brandon Romero, Michael Gizzi and Zac McNeel made relief appearances. Gizzi led the Herd in strikeouts with two. McNeeel and Romero didn't allow a run.
Marshall and Old Dominion returns to the diamond for game two of the series on Saturday at 3 p.m.
---HerdZone.com---
