Coach Paul Page Interview

Jacob Horsley's Home Run

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A 7-3 win by Ohio Dominican's baseball team over Cedarville on Wednesday afternoon gave longtime Panther head coach Paul Page his 1,000th career win leading the ODU program.

In his 29th season as ODU's head coach, Page has led the Panthers to 22 seasons of 30 or more victories, including 10 seasons of 40-plus wins. During his tenure, the Panthers won 11 regular season titles, nine conference tournament championships, six regional championships in 13 appearances, and made six NAIA World Series appearances.

He's won 66 percent of his games guiding the Panthers and has been named conference coach of the year five times and district baseball coach of the year twice.

In today's victory, sophomore Lee Sponseller (Mason, Ohio) drilled a two-run homer to the scoreboard in right-center field in the first inning to give the Panthers a lead they ultimately would not relinquish.

Sophomore Justin Childers (Pickerington, Ohio) blasted a double to the wall in left-center that scored sophomore Cody Paterniti (Chardon, Ohio) and extend the lead to 3-0 in the third.

The score remained that way until the sixth when Cedarville cut it to 3-2, but the Panthers (12-7-1) answered. Senior Jacob Horsley (Thornville, Ohio) smoked a ground rule double to straightaway center field to plate junior Kyle Burson (Brunswick, Ohio) in the bottom of the inning, and an RBI groundout by Paterniti in the seventh bumped the lead to 5-2.

The Yellow Jackets (3-16) answered with a run in the eighth and had two men on with one out, but Horsley started a 5-4-3 twin killing after snaring a tough grounder at third that ended the inning.

Then, in the bottom of the eighth, Horsley smashed a hanging breaking ball over the "ODU" bushes adorning the hill side overlooking left field, a two-run shot to give the Panthers breathing room for the ninth.

Paterniti, Sponseller and Horsley each had two hits for the Panthers. Sponseller's dinger was the fourth of the season for him and 10th in his career, while Horsley's was his first this year and third of his career.

Junior Seth Bowles (Mason, Ohio) made his first collegiate start and earned his first career victory. He worked a career-best 5.1 innings and allowed four hits and two runs. He threw 45 of his 71 pitches for strikes and set down nine consecutive batters at one point.

Sophomore Joe Filosa (Fort Wayne, Ind.) tossed the final 1.2 innings to pick up his first career save. He needed just 12 pitches and threw his last 10 for strikes.

Ohio Dominican returns to conference play this weekend with a four-game series against Wayne State. First pitch is slated for 1 p.m. for Saturday's doubleheader.

Contact: Scott Miles
miless@ohiodominican.edu