WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – Ohio Dominican's offense generated six early runs and the pitching staff made it hold up as the baseball team defeated Charleston (W. Va.) 6-4 Friday morning at the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational.

With the win, ODU improved to 7-4 on the season, while the Golden Eagles fell to 11-6.

Junior righty Alex Borgan (Pickerington, Ohio) made his second start of the spring break trip and earned the win, tossing 7.1 innings and allowing just one earned run. He yielded seven hits and fanned five while walking three in moving to 2-0 on the season.

Senior Erik Lamka (Troy, Ohio) notched his second save of the season, closing the final 1.2 innings and striking out three, allowing two hits and walking one.

Seniors John Bowron (Dayton, Ohio) and Evan Shaw (Delaware, Ohio) both went 2-for-4, while redshirt sophomore Christian Prince (Hudsonville, Mich.) scored twice and had an RBI to pace the Panther offensive attack.

ODU scored the game's first two runs in the second as Prince reached on an error, stole second, then scored on a pair of wild pitches. Later in the frame, Bowron singled and also stole second, then came in to score on an RBI single by Zach Dascenzo (Uniontown, Pa.).

After Charleston scored three runs in the third to go on top 3-2, the Panthers jumped back on top with three runs themselves. Junior Ryan Rovnak (Poland, Ohio) was hit by a pitch and senior Tyler Zaidel (Cincinnati, Ohio) walked to start the bottom of the third. Prince delivered an RBI single that scored Rovnak, and Tisdale would come in on a sacrifice fly by freshman Kyle Tisdale (Uniontown, Ohio). Later in the frame, Prince would score on a throwing error to make it 5-3.

The Panthers tacked on another run in the fourth as Dascenzo would reach on an error and come in to score on Zaidel's RBI grounder, putting ODU on top 6-3.

Borgan was sharp in the middle innings, not allowing a hit between the fourth and sixth frames. After running into trouble in the eighth, he exited with one run in and two out, and Lamka finished the frame with a punch out and a fly out to keep ODU in front 6-4.

Charleston started the ninth with back to back singles, and a walk with one out loaded the bases. But Lamka escaped unscathed as he sealed the win with a pop out back to the mound and his third strikeout of the game.

Ohio Dominican returns to action at 11 a.m. Saturday in the final game of its spring trip, taking on Huntington (Ind.).

Contact: Scott Miles
miless@ohiodominican.edu