March 29, 2012
WILMINGTON, NC-- The ODU Monarchs hit the road for a three-game CAA series at Leagueleader UNCW beginning Friday night at 6:30 pm. The contest will be broadcast live onStar1310 ESPN AM radio and on odusports.com via Monarch Media with ODU Director of Broadcasting Ted Alexander providing the play-by-play.
The Seahawks are 12-12 overall and 7-2 in the CAA, one game ahead of Hofstra and Towson. UNCW ranks second in the CAA in team ERA at 3.69 and four in hitting at .284.
UNCW is scheduled to throw Tyler McSwain (3-2/3.68) on Friday, lefthander Matt Batts (1-3/3.06) on Saturday and Jordan Ramsey (2-1/2.30 ERA) on Sunday. Ramseyranks sixth in the CAA in ERA and has 26 strikeouts in 27.1 innings.
Tyler Molinaro leads the Seahawks with seven homers and 22 RBI. Jake Koenig leadsin hitting at .338, followed by Thomas Pope at .337 with 16 RBI and 22 runs scored.
The Seahawks lead the series, 56-55. Last year, ODU defeated UNCW in two of threeregular season games at the Bud Metheny Complex and also beat them 4-3 in the CAATournament.
Austin McGowan leads ODU with a .400 batting average, followed by senior catcher Josh Tutwiler at .333 with three homers and 15 RBI. He also has a .533 sluggingpercentage. Rightfielder Chris Baker ranks ninth in the CAA with 21 RBI, sixthin total bases with 51, 10th in total bases at .548 and third in homers with six.
Shortstop Josh Wright is sixth in the CAA in runs scored with 23, while sophomorefirstbaseman Joey Burney is fifth in the CAA with four homers.
The Monarchs are scheduled to throw Ben Tomchick (0-2/4.55) on Friday, BrandonSmith (4-0/3.42) on Saturday and Phil McCarthy (0-3/6.00) on Sunday. Smith is tiedfor the league lead in wins, while Tomchick ranks fourth in strikeouts with 33 in29.2 innings of work.
CAA StandingsUNCW 7-2Hofstra 6-3Towson 6-3Ga.State 4-2W&M 5-4NU 3-3George Mason 4-5Delaware 4-5VCU 3-6ODU 2-4JMU 1-8