Old Dominion Slips Past Clemson

by Dan Scott - Correspondent - Wed Mar 23 22:08:43 GMT-04:00 2005

NORFOLK, Va. - Turnabout is fair play, apparently.

One night after dropping a pitcher's duel to Clemson, Old Dominion turned the trick on the visiting Tigers Wednesday night with a 3-2 victory at the Bud Metheny Complex here in Norfolk, Va.

The Monarchs took advantage of two Clemson errors, turning them into a pair of unearned runs, on a cold, wet and windy night. Both unearned runs - plus the one earned run - came at the expense of Tigers' starter and loser Jeff Hahn (0-1).

Hahn pitched well despite the defeat, striking out a career high 9 in 5 2/3 innings. He fell behind 2-0 in the bottom of the first inning after just four Monarch batters had come to the plate - a double and an error setting up Tyler Belcher's two-run single.

But after that Hahn settled down and didn't allow another run until first baseman John Ingram's error led to a third ODU (15-13) run in the fifth inning. Even at that Hahn had an opportunity to escape without further damage. But Bryan Cipolla, who reached on the Ingram error and eventually found his way to third base, scored on a wild pitch for the tie-breaking run.

Old Dominion's bullpen made the lead stand up.

Hunter Hall (3-1) pitched 3 2/3 innings in relief to get the win. Kyle Dubois came on in the seventh inning with two on and two out, struck out Kris Harvey, then retired the side in order in both the eighth and ninth innings for his first save of the season.

Stephen Cline pitched 2 1/3 perfect innings in relief of Hahn, keeping his season ERA at 0.00.

Clemson's only runs came on a two-run home run to right field by Tyler Colvin in the third inning.

The Tigers stay on the road, traveling to Maryland today for a three-game ACC series which opens Friday in College Park. Josh Cribb, Harvey and Robert Rohrbaugh are expected to be Clemson's starters for the series.

Dan Scott covers Clemson University for the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Seneca Daily Journal/Clemson Messenger and TigerNet. He also hosts SportsTalk from 9 a.m.-Noon, Monday-Friday, on WCCP-Fm, 104.9. Click here for Dan Scott's SportsTalk discussion board.