Minium: Red Hot ODU Baseball Team Leads Sun Belt in 15 Hitting Categories

NORFOLK, Va. – When the score of Old Dominion's baseball victory over Princeton on Wednesday hit social media, someone on Twitter wanted to know, "Did ODU miss an extra point?"
 
Good line. The final score was 23-0, and although that kind of a blowout is an aberration in baseball, the Monarchs have put up football-like numbers in their first 17 games.
 
ODU (15-2) leads the Sun Belt Conference in 15 offensive categories, including home runs (41), hits (214), batting average (.315), runs (192), scoring (11.3 runs per game), on base percentage (.453) and slugging percentage (.636).
 
ODU also leads in ERA (3.63) and shutouts (five).
 
Nationally, the Monarchs rank in the top 10 in nearly a dozen categories, including No. 2 in home runs and No. 5 in batting average.
 
Hunter Fitz-Gerald, the standout junior college transfer, is tied for third nationally with 10 home runs and first with 35 hits while Jake Ticer is eighth nationally with nine home runs. 
 
At 15-2, the Monarchs have outscored their opponents, 192-77, an average score of 11.3 to 4.5.
 
And, yes, if you're wondering, that's an awesome start for a team that wasn't supposed to be all that good this season. 
 
The Monarchs returned just 16 of 43 lettermen from last season, including three of their top nine hitters. Three players were taken in the Major League draft and four key pitchers also departed.


Freshman Alex Bouche is off to a hot start for ODU. 

Not surprisingly, the Monarchs were picked to finish seventh in the Sun Belt. "I'm really proud of how hard our guys played right out of the box," head coach Chris Finwood said. 
 
But it's time for the Monarchs to begin Sun Belt play, and when Finwood gathered his players after the win over Princeton, he told them, "From now on, we have to step it up."
 
The Monarchs open Sun Belt play Friday at Louisiana-Monroe (7 p.m., FOX Sports 1310 AM) in the first of three weekend games, then return home next weekend to host three games against Marshall.
 
ODU has 30 games against Sun Belt schools, and that's saying a mouthful. The Sun Belt has six teams among the top 91 in the NCAA RPI ratings, the most of any mid-major league – the West Coast Conference is second with five.
 
Texas State (11-5), which is not among those six top 91 teams, is 4-0 against Power 5 schools, including an upset of TCU, which is No. 11 in D1 Baseball's Top 25.
 
Southern Miss swept a trio of games against Dallas Baptist, a perennial mid-major power. 


Coach Chris Finwood says he loves the camaraderie of his young baseball team.  

Coastal Carolina won at Wake Forest and upended No. 14 Campbell. And although ULM is just 7-11, the Warhawks split a series at Mississippi State.
 
"There are some really good clubs in the Sun Belt," Finwood said. "It's conference play so it's time to get into that and see where we're at."

The non-conference schedule also gets more difficult. ODU has a home-and-home with No. 10 East Carolina. The second game is at Norfolk's Harbor Park on May 9 in the annual Commonwealth Classic. 
 
The Monarchs travel to No. 14 Virginia on March 28. There are also home-and-home games with VCU and Liberty. 
 
It's clear from the ODU stat sheet that Finwood reloaded rather than rebuilt. Fitz-Gerald, a 6-foot-5, 230-pound first baseman, transferred from Florida Southwestern State College, he said, "Because they hit a lot of home runs."
 
Can't argue with that kind of logic. This is the third season in a row that balls have been soaring out of Bud Metheny Ballpark.
 
Shortstop Alex Bouche has been a surprise in that he's a freshman and is second on the team with a .377 batting average with six home runs, 23 RBIs and an .811 slugging percentage. Bouche is a Chesapeake native who played high school baseball in North Carolina.
 
Ticer, who is 6-7 and 245 pounds, transferred from Colby Community College in Kansas and is hitting .333 with a .907 slugging percentage. Robbie O'Neal, who transferred from Pitt Community College of North Carolina, has played ably behind the plate and is hitting .333.


 Sam Armstrong is 3-0 as a starter for ODU. 

Thomas Wheeler, the junior college transfer who had an outstanding season last year for ODU, is hitting .369 with 15 RBIs. His younger brother, Tyler, also from Roy, Washington, is hitting .375 in his six starts behind the plate.
 
Veterans Kenny Levari (.362) and Chris Dengler (.288) are hitting well. Luke Waters (.350), who played sparingly last season, has been something of a surprise.
 
The biggest surprise among ODU's pitchers has been Robert Cook, a graduate transfer from Virginia Wesleyan, who is 2-0 and and allowed just four hits and no earned runs in 9 1/3 innings of relief. 
 
Junior Sam Armstrong is throwing better than he did a year ago and is 3-0 with a 1.61 ERA in four starts.
 
"We've got to get Blake Morgan going," Finwood said of the left-hander from Marlton, New Jersey, who was a freshman All-American last season. "He's been just kind of okay.


Veteran third baseman Kenny Levari is hitting .362 for ODU. 

"He's certainly capable of throwing better. Sam Armstrong has been our best pitcher so far."
 
Sun Belt schedule makers were kind to ODU in that conference heavyweights Southern Miss (April 6-8), Coastal Carolina (April 14-16) and Texas State (April 28-30) all come to Norfolk. But even playing at home, it will be a challenge to beat teams ranked among the nation's best.
 
Finwood says he loves this team, and not just because the Monarchs have played well.
 
"Their attitudes are great," he said. "The leadership has been good. And the guys have a growth mindset.
 
"We've got some guys that I think can get a lot better.
 
"Going 15-2 is pretty good no matter who you're playing. Hopefully our guys are going into he conference schedule with a lot of confidence."

Contact Minium at hminium@odu.edu or follow him  on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram