May 17, 2002

Box Score

NORFOLK, VA. - Old Dominion University freshman righthander Justin Verlander (Goochland, VA.) struckout a school record 17 batters to lead the Monarchs to a 2-0 CAA American Division victory over 22nd ranked James Madison Friday night. ODU is now 25-26 overall and 7-11 in the CAA, JMU is 40-11 overall and 14-4 in the CAA.

The 17 strikeouts breaks the record Verlander tied earlier this year of 15 against Drexel, and also held by Kevin Bearse ('87) twice and John Smith ('93). Verlander held the CAA's top hitting Dukes hitless until Brent Metheny led off the sixth with a single passed third. JMU's other hit was in the ninth with two outs by Mike Butia.

The freshman now has a league leading 1.90 earned run average with 137 strikeouts in 113.2 innings, just one shy of the single season mark of 138 set in 1985 by former major leaguer and ODU Sports Hall of Fame pitcher Kevin Bearse.

Mike Croley's (Jupiter, FL.) infield hit scored Joe Moore (Woodbridge, VA.) to give ODU a 1-0 lead in the first inning. In the third Allen Strick's (Glen Burnie, MD.) sacrifice fly scored Jess Schoendienst (Belcamp, MD.) for a 2-0 ODU lead. Moore led ODU with a career high 4-for-4 night.

The ODU win ended JMU's Jared Doyle's ten game winning streak. The CAA's top winner with ten victories gave up ten hits, walked no one and fanned nine. The two teams play game two of the three-game CAA series on Saturday at 5 p.m., at the Bud Metheny Baseball Complex.

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JMU 000 000 000 =0-2-0
ODU 101 000 00x=2-10-1

JMU Battery: Jared Doyle and Matt Deuchler. ODU Battery: Justin Verlander and John Oehler