Box Score NORFOLK, Va. – Michael Perez hit two solo home runs and Josiah Burney added one of his own to lead host Old Dominion to an 8-3 win over Norfolk State on Friday evening at the Bud Metheny Baseball Complex.

Killian Strenn hit his first collegiate home run and Tyon Ore had two hits for the Spartans (17-27), who have lost six of their last eight.

NSU took a short-lived 1-0 lead in the top of the first off Monarch starter Andy Roberts. Justin Lee led off the game by chopping a single over the third baseman's head. Strenn sacrificed him to second, and Cameron Day plated Lee with a two-out RBI single.

Perez tied the game up in the bottom of the second with a lead-off homer down the left-field line off Spartan starter Chris Horne (4-5). Perez then hit a two-out solo shot, again off Horne, over the wall in left-center to give ODU (27-22) a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth.

The Spartans tied it up at 2-all in the top of the fifth. Ore led off with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice and scored on a two-out single by Andre Moore.

But ODU scored once in both the fifth and sixth innings and four times in the eighth to pull away. Josh Eldridge put the Monarchs ahead to stay with an RBI double in the fifth. Burney then led off the sixth with a solo homer off NSU reliever Richie Salter to give ODU a 4-2 edge.

ODU tacked on four more runs, thanks to three hits and two NSU errors, in the seventh. Ben Verlander hit an RBI single, while Burney and P.J. Higgins also knocked in runs in the frame.

Strenn capped the scoring with a solo homer down the left-field line off ODU reliever Tommy Alexander in the ninth.
Perez, Eldridge and Connor Myers all went 2-for-4 for the Monarchs, who also got two RBI from Burney. Roberts allowed five hits and two runs in five innings to get the win.

Ore went 2-for-4 with a run scored for NSU. Horne took the loss after yielding five hits and three runs in 4.2 innings of work.
The teams cap their brief two-game series with a 1 p.m. game on Saturday at Marty L. Miller Field. NSU will recognize its four seniors prior to the game.