NORFOLK, Va. – The Georgia Southern baseball team fell 11-1 in eight innings to the Old Dominion Monarchs in the Sun Belt Conference opener on Friday afternoon at Bud Metheny Ballpark.

The first inning saw the Monarchs (11-7) take a 6-0 lead, starting first when Luke Waters' RBI-single scored Steven Meier. Alex Bouche added to the lead with a two-RBI single to score Waters and Meier to take a 3-0 lead. The Monarchs doubled the lead when Stallings bashed a home run to right center, clearing the bags and taking that aforementioned 6-0 lead.

Georgia Southern (8-9) took to the board in the top of the second inning on the back on Sean White's first-career triple, scoring Jarrett Jenkins and digging into the lead at 6-1.

The Monarchs matched the Eagles in runs scored in the bottom half of the second inning when Waters singled to first base, scoring Kyle Edwards and bringing the lead back to six runs at 7-1. Waters struck again in the bottom of the fourth inning when he homered to center to bring Meier home with him, taking a 9-1 lead. Bouche would punctuate the game with a lead-off homer in the bottom of the seventh inning to take the 10-1 lead. In the eighth inning, Edwards ended the game with a RBI-double, scoring Bryce Jones and giving ODU the 11-1 victory.

Thomas Higgins took the loss after just one inning of work, responsible for the first six runs of the game. John Holobetz took the victory in the contest.

UP NEXT

Georgia Southern eyes a bounce-back victory in game two to even the series. Saturday's game is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m.