Old Dominion (26-21, 12-12 Sun Belt) vs. App State (28-16-1, 13-10-1 Sun Belt)
Game Location – Bud Metheny Ballpark (Norfolk, Va.)
Game 1 – Friday, May 10 at 2 p.m.
Game 2 – Saturday, May 11 at 3 p.m.
Game 3 – Sunday, May 12 at 1 p.m.
Watch – ESPN+ (Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3)
Live Stats – Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion Baseball has its final home series of the season this weekend when the Monarchs host App State for three games at Bud Metheny Ballpark.
Friday’s series opener, originally scheduled for 6 p.m., has been moved up to a 2 p.m. start in order to avoid expected inclement weather tomorrow night. The teams will then play at 3 p.m. on Saturday and wrap up with a 1 p.m. first pitch on Sunday.
Fans unable to attend can stream all three games on ESPN+ with Andy Mashaw providing play-by-play. Live stats will also be available.
Around the Horn
After dropping two of three games at Texas State last weekend, the Monarchs (26-21, 12-12 Sun Belt) resumed their home-and-home series with VCU on Tuesday and defeated the Rams, 14-8 at The Diamond. Luke Waters turned in a 5-for-6 effort at the plate, driving in three runs, and Kellen Davis improved to 4-0 after throwing 1.1 scoring innings in relief.
Waters entered the week hitting .298, but his outing against the Rams raised his average to .316, which leads the team. He also owns team highs in slugging percentage (.514), on-base percentage (.401), hits (56), home runs (9) and total bases (91). Kyle Edwards enters the series batting .287 and Kenny Levari is third at .278. Edwards has scored the most runs for the Monarchs this year with 38 while Levari has the most RBIs with 41 and is right behind Waters in homers with eight. Edwards has the team’s longest active hit streak at nine games and ranks seventh in the country with seven sacrifice flies. As a team, the Monarchs are batting .249 with a .392 slugging percentage and a .347 on-base percentage.
This weekend’s rotation will see Jay Cassady (0-3, 4.45 ERA) starting on Friday and Ben Moore (1-1, 2.61 ERA) starting on Saturday. ODU has not named a starter for the series finale. Monarch pitching continues to be a strong suit this season with the team ranked 12th in Division I in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.78), 13th in WHIP (1.30), 17th in walks allowed per nine innings (3.46), and 25th in ERA (4.43) and hits allowed per nine innings (8.24).
Through games played on May 8, the Monarchs rank 71st in the RPI. They’re also seventh in the Sun Belt standings with six games left in league play. The top six seeds for the upcoming Sun Belt Championship will earn byes to the double-elimination bracket, while seeds seven through 10 will square off in a pair of single-elimination games.
Scouting App State
The Mountaineers (28-16-1, 13-10-1) fell 9-5 in their series opener versus South Alabama last Friday. The teams were unable to play on Saturday due to inclement weather, and App State won both games of a Sunday doubleheader, 10-2 and 13-1.
App State has one of the best offenses in the conference and leads the league in batting average (.305), home runs (83), home runs per game (1.84), scoring (9.4 runs per game) and slugging percentage (.530). Six starters are hitting .300 or better, led by Banks Tolley at .385. Following him are Austin St. Laurent (.372), Drew Holderbach (.351), Joseph Zamora (.310), CJ Boyd (.308) and Xavier Moronta (.300). Tolley is first in the Sun Belt in home runs (21) and home runs per game (0.47) and is third in RBIs (62) and RBIs per game (1.38). St. Laurent is the league leader in hits (74) and hits per game (1.64) and is third in runs (65) and runs per game (1.44).
Jackson Steensma (5-2, 4.17 ERA) will get the start on Friday and Dante Chirico (4-1, 6.36 ERA) will start on Saturday with Sunday’s starter still to be determined. The Mountaineers have a combined ERA of 7.13 with opponents hitting .269 against them.
App State was picked to finish ninth in the Sun Belt Preseason Coaches’ Poll and is currently fifth in the conference standings. Boyd represented the Mountaineers on the Preseason All-Sun Belt Team and App State will conclude the regular season by hosting Georgia Southern next week. Head Coach Kermit Smith is in his eighth season leading the program.
The Series
ODU holds a 6-2 lead in the all-times series, though App State took two of three games last season when the Mountaineers hosted the Monarchs on April 21-23. After a narrow 7-6 loss in the opener, ODU bounced back with a dominant 13-1 victory to even the series at a game apiece. App State then run ruled ODU, 18-8 in seven innings to claim the rubber match.
Farewell to The Bud
This weekend marks ODU’s final three games played at The Bud before construction begins on the Ellmer Family Baseball Complex. Named after former ODU coach and Athletic Director Bud Metheny, the stadium opened in 1983 and was dedicated on April 25, 1984 during the Monarchs’ game against Virginia Tech, which featured a record crowd of 2,125. The Paul Keyes indoor hitting facility was constructed in 2014 and Rally Alley was added in 2018. The Bud hosted the Sun Belt baseball tournament in 1983, 1985 and 1987 and was the site of the CAA baseball tournament in 1994.
Weekend Events
The Monarchs will have a graduation ceremony before first pitch on Saturday and will recognize its senior class ahead of Sunday’s game. Taking part in Senior Day will be team managers Jacob Zidow and Sam Phelps along with players Kenny Levari, Jake Ticer, Lincoln Ransom, Brandon Pond, Hunter Cole, Trent Buchanan, Aiden Kuhle, Jacob Gomez, Vincent Bashara and Jay Cassady. With Sunday also being Mother’s Day, the group will throw out the first pitch to their mothers.
Get Your Gear!
Need some ODU gear to rep the Monarchs? The ODU Bookstore has you covered as the on-field hats the Monarchs wear during games are now in stock.
Up Next
ODU will head back to Richmond next Tuesday for its final midweek game of the season at U of R. First pitch against the Spiders is scheduled for 2 p.m.