Marshall University baseball lost its series with Old Dominion 2-1 over the weekend at War Memorial Stadium in Hampton, Virginia.
The Thundering Herd took game one 11-4 on Friday to improve to a seven-game winning streak that included a victory over ranked opponent West Virginia, but the weekend was not as kind as ODU took game two 5-4 and game three 8-2.
Marshall is 10-14 in conference play. Coastal Carolina leads the conference at 20-4 and is the first team to reach 20 wins in the league.
Marshall has six SBC games left before the conference tournament. Just 10 of 14 teams can qualify for the postseason, and the Herd is by itself at that No. 10 spot.
Six games is also the difference between 10th and third in the SBC. Marshall has nothing but upward momentum if it were to win out ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” the No. 5 seed is currently tied between Texas State and ODU at 12-12.
Marshall, however, it is also only one game ahead of Georgia State, the HerdÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s opponent on the road this week. The final home series against Georgia Southern (11-13) would currently be MarshallÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s last chance to beat a team ahead of it in the standings.
GAME 1 ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” MARSHALL 11, ODU 4: Marshall scored 11 runs on 13 hits and did not commit an error in the first game of its series with Old Dominion.
ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œGreat way to open the series,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Marshall coach Greg Beals said after the win. ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œOur bats came out and gave our pitching staff a good lead to work with. Bryce Blevins got us deep into the game and competed his tail off again.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
Maika Niu had two homers. He went 3 for 6 with three runs batted in and three runs. AJ Havrilla, Eddie Leon, Ethan Murdoch and Cam Harthan each had doubles. Leon had two and totaled two RBIs.
ODU got homers from Jorge Kainen and Maverick Stallings.
Marshall scored three runs in the first inning. Havrilla singled to score Jackson Halter before Leon doubled for an RBI. The last run of the frame came on a sacrifice grounder from Elijah Vogelsong.
Havrilla hit a sacrifice fly in the second before Harthan doubled to give Marshall a 5-0 lead in the third inning.
ODU answered with a two-run homer in the third, but Niu responded with one of his own in the fourth. Marshall led 6-2 at that point before the Herd added three more runs on a Leon RBI double, a wild pitch and an RBI double from Murdoch. The Herd led 9-2.
All of ODUÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s runs came on homers. Stallings hit another two-run shot in the sixth to bring ODU within five, but NiuÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s second home run sealed the deal.
Blevins threw seven innings and allowed four earned runs, striking out three to improve to 5-5 on the year.
MARSHALL 311 400 200 ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” 11 13 0
OLD DOMINION 002 002 000 ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” 4 9 1
Blevins, Jackson (8), Albright (8), Proehl (9) and Wilson; Moore, Sulpizio (4), Park (5), Tostrup (7) and Morales.
Hitting: (MU) Niu 3-6 3 RBI HR, Havrilla 2-3 2 RBI 2B, Leon 2-5 2 RBI 2B, Harthan 2-5 RBI 2B; (ODU) Kainen 2-3 2 RBI, Stallings 2-3 2 RBI HR, Edwards 2-4, Jorge 2-3 2 RBI HR.
GAME 2 ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” ODU 5, MARSHALL 4: MarshallÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s win streak was snapped the next night in a tumultuous game that saw all nine runs scored with two outs on the board.
Marshall led 4-1 in the fourth after a pair of early homers. Havrilla had a two-run blast in the third, and Wilson hit another in the fourth.
ODU rallied ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” hitting a three-run double in the bottom half of the fourth before taking the final lead in the fifth on a single.
Marshall had eight hits but left 10 runners on base. The Herd had loaded bases in the fifth but stranded all three with a strikeout. Marshall also had two runners in scoring position in the seventh but came up short.
The Herd was led by Havrilla and Leon at three hits apiece to go along with WilsonÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s homer.
Griffin Miller fell to 5-3, allowing five earned runs on five hits. He had seven strikeouts in five innings of work before Charlie Krebs entered in relief ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” allowing just one hit in three innings with three strikeouts.
ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œIt was a tough game today for us,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Beals said. ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œOur opponent pitched the ball well, leading to too many strikeouts on our part. We only gave them five free baserunners, but four of them scored. Give them credit, they had three two-out doubles that scored all their runs.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
MARSHALL 002 200 000 ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” 4 8 1
OLD DOMINION 001 310 00X ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” 5 6 1
Miller, Krebs (6) and Wilson; Brown Hubbell (7), Davis (8) and Holman.
Hitting: (MU) Havrilla 3-4 2 RBI HR, Leon 3-5, Wilson 1-3 2 RBI HR; (ODU) Kainen 2-4 RBI 2B, Stallings 1-3 RBI 2B, Holman 1-2 3 RBI 2B.
GAME 3 ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” ODU 8, MARSHALL 2: Marshall was held to two runs on seven hits and didnÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t score for the final seven innings in a series-clinching win for ODU.
ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œWe ran into a very strong pitching performance today from ODUÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s starter Blake Morgan,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Beals said. ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œWe got to him early, but he settled in obviously. Once again today, our free bases haunted us. Winning series on the road in this conference is tough. We need to toughen up and finish strong here these last two weeks of regular season.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
Halter had a bright spot with his 14th multi-hit game of the year, knocking a single and a double. Niu hit his third homer for the series in the first to give Marshall its two runs.
ODU scored eight runs from that point. Morgan allowed six hits and a walk in that time, striking out seven batters in a complete-game victory.
ODU got an RBI single in the second before scoring two runs on a balk and an HBP in the third.
Three doubles scored runs down the stretch for ODU. The Monarchs were led by two-hit games from Zach Leite, Stallings and Kyle Edwards. Stallings had one double while Edwards had two.
MARSHALL 200 000 000 ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” 2 7 0
OLD DOMINION 012 000 23X ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” 8 9 0
Moak, DiGiacomo (3), Baird (7), Weyrich (8) and Wilson; Morgan and Holman.
Hitting: (MU) Halter 2-3 2B, Niu 1-4 2 RBI HR, Vogelsong 1-3 2B; (ODU) Stallings 2-4 RBI 2B, Edwards 2-4 3 RBI 2B, Leite 2-4.
NEXT WEEK: The Herd faces Georgia State at 6 p.m. Friday in Atlanta.
Marshall trails the all-time series 5-2 and has never won a game in Atlanta against the Panthers. The Herd won the 2024 series. Both teams scored 23 runs apiece in that series.
This season, the Panthers are 24-25 overall with a 9-15 conference record. Georgia State is 18-12 at home.
