April 4, 2013
NORFOLK, VA-- The ODU Baseball Monarchs hit the road to Harrisonburg, VA. for athree-game Conference series with the Dukes of JMU. Friday and Saturday's games willstart at 6:30 pm. and on Sunday the first pitch will be 2 p.m. Listen to Fridayand Saturday night's games live on STAR1310 AM with ODU Director of BroadcastingTed Alexander along with Doug Ripley.
The Dukes (41-13/6-5) rank third in the CAA with a team batting average of .320,led by Ty McFarland with a .381 batting average and Chad Carroll with a .385average. McFarland and Matt Tenaglia both have 26 RBI's, while Tenaglia, JohnnyBladel and McFarland rank in the top four of the CAA in runs scored.
JMU is scheduled to throw three righthanders against ODU this weekend. On Friday,Chris Huffman (1-2/4.56 ERA) will start, followed by Michael Howerton (3-1/4.70 ERA) on Saturday and Patrick Toohers (2-4/ 7.75) on Sunday.
The Monarchs will go with Dean Ali (1-2/1.98) on Friday, followed by lefthanderAndy Roberts (1-2/ 2.70) on Saturday and lefthander Ryan Yarbrough (1-3/4.87 ERA)on Sunday.
The Monarchs are again led in hitting by junior outfielder Ben Verlander at .398with a CAA best eight homers and 16 RBI. Designated hitter Ben Slaton is at .306with 16 RBI, while freshmen Connor Myers ishitting .281. Sophomore Josh Eldridge is hitting .269 with a team best 21 RBI.
Junior Dean Ali is third in the CAA with a 1.98 ERA and Andy Roberts ranks ninthin the league at 2.70. Ali ranks seventh in the CAA with 37 strikeouts for an 8.03 strikeout average per nine innings.
Senior Brandon Smith remains tied with W&M's Mitchell Aker with five saves and15 total appearances.
The Monarchs lead the series, 55-50-1. Last year, JMU won two of three in Norfolk. ODU won two of three at JMU in 2011.