Matchup – Old Dominion (30-18, 13-11 Sun Belt) at James Madison (27-20, 12-10 Sun Belt)
Game Location – Eagle Field at Veterans Memorial Park (Harrisonburg, Va.)
Game 1 – Friday, May 12 at 6 p.m.
Game 2 – Saturday, May 13 at 6 p.m.
Game 3 – Sunday, May 14 at 1 p.m.
Watch – ESPN+ (Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3)
Listen – FOX Sports 1310, 100.9 FM
Live Stats – Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion University Baseball heads to James Madison this weekend for its final Sun Belt Conference regular season road series. The series begins on Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday's game also starts at 6 p.m. and Sunday's finale is scheduled for 1 p.m.
Fans can watch all three games on ESPN+ or tune into Fox Sports 1310, 100.9 FM to hear Ted Alexander. Live stats will also be available.
Around the Horn
The Sun Belt Conference standings are a logjam as six teams are within two games of each other heading into the final two weekends of the regular season. JMU is currently sixth in the standings while ODU sits in eighth.
On Wednesday, Old Dominion (30-18, 13-11) fell to East Carolina in 13 innings, 4-1. Trailing 1-0 with one out in the bottom of the ninth, Kenny Levari tied the score with a home run but the Pirates scored three in the top of the 13th to secure the win. Levari had his fifth-straight multi-hit game for the Monarchs.
Hunter Fitz-Gerald leads the Monarchs with a .327 batting average, 21 homers and 66 RBIs. He ranks tied for seventh in the country in homers and is tied for 13th in RBIs. Fitz-Gerald is only the fourth player in ODU history to hit 20+ homers in a single-season, joining Matt Coutney, who set the record last season with 27, Andy Garriola, who hit 25 last season, and Ron Walker who hit 20 homers in 1997.
Levari is second on the team with a .318 average and has a team-best 16 doubles.
Jake Ticer (.302) and Alex Bouche (.301) give ODU four batters in the lineup hitting over .300, not including Logan Duffy, who is at .348 in 46 at-bats.
This weekend in the rotation ODU will start Blake Morgan (3-4, 6.33 ERA) on Friday, Sam Armstrong (9-1, 2.76 ERA) on Saturday and is TBA on Sunday.
Scouting James Madison
Fresh off a sweep at Marshall, JMU is 27-20 overall, 12-10 in conference play and currently in sixth place in the standings.
The Dukes feature a trio of hitters batting over .300, including Kyle Novak (.362), Fenwick Trimble (.354) and Jack Cone (.316).
Trimble leads JMU with 12 home runs, 22 doubles and 49 RBIs. He went 7-for-17 last weekend in the sweep at Marshall, including a 4-for-4 day with a homer in the series finale on Sunday.
Todd Mozocki (1-3, 4.18 ERA) will start on the mound on Friday, Ryan Murphy (4-3, 5.24 ERA) on Saturday and Ryan Ertlschweiger (2-2, 4.94 ERA) will get the ball on Sunday.
The Series
ODU leads the all-time series 58-47-1. The two clubs last met in 2017 when they split a mid-week series. Nick Walker hit a homer in the bottom of the seventh to lift ODU to a 9-8 victory in the first game of the two-game series. JMU won the second game, 4-3.
What's Next
The final week of the regular season. ODU returns home to host VCU on Tuesday, May 16 and brings in Georgia State for the final conference series of the regular season.
Baseball Travels to James Madison for Key Sun Belt Conference Series
Thomas Wheeler