Old Dominion (2-4, 0-0 Sun Belt) at East Carolina (2-5, 0-0 American)
Game Location – Clark-LeClair Stadium (Greenville, N.C.)
Start Time – Wednesday, Feb. 26 at 3 p.m.
Watch – ESPN+
Live Stats – Click Here
NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion Baseball’s first midweek game of the season sees the team traveling to Greenville, North Carolina for a 3 p.m. meeting with East Carolina on Wednesday.
Originally scheduled for Tuesday at 4 p.m., the game was pushed back a day after ECU and No. 6 North Carolina had to adjust their weekend series due to weather late last week.
Wednesday will be streamed on ESPN+ and live stats will also be available.
Around the Horn
After dropping the series opener at Charlotte, 10-9 in 11 innings last Friday, the Monarchs (2-4, 0-0 Sun Belt) evened the series with a 4-2 final on Saturday. ODU then trailed 6-3 heading into the ninth inning of Sunday’s rubber match, but Kyle Edwards’ three-run home run lifted ODU to a 7-6 victory.
Dylan Brown played a critical role in helping the Monarchs secure their first win of the season on Saturday. The junior lefthander pitched eight shutout innings against the 49ers and recorded a career high 13 strikeouts. He scattered two hits, walked two, and retired 16 batters in a row. The effort led to him being named the Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Week as well as the National Pitcher of the Week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) on Tuesday.
TJ Aiken also had a big weekend. The sophomore outfielder only played in two games at Charlotte, but hit .375 (3-for-8) with two home runs and seven RBIs. He drove in all four of the team’s runs on Saturday with a two-out, two-RBI single in the first inning and a two-run homer in the sixth. On Sunday, Aiken opened the scoring with a three-run blast in the fourth.
Freshman designated hitter Efrain Morales leads ODU’s bats with a .346 average. Zach Leite is hitting .308, Aiken is next with a .300 clip, and Evan Holman and Scotty Young enter the week with .286 averages. ODU is hitting a combined .234 and owns a .351 slugging percentage and a .354 on-base percentage. The Monarchs have also stolen safely on 7-of-9 attempts.
Senior right-hander Frankie Wright, a transfer from Wagner, will get the nod for the Monarchs. The Woodbine, New Jersey native is 0-0 with a 99.00 ERA after allowing three runs, two of them earned, in a brief appearance at Georgia Tech on Feb. 15. ODU pitching has a 5.30 ERA and opponents are hitting .207 against the Monarchs.
Scouting East Carolina
The Pirates (2-5, 0-0 American) took two of three games against George Mason to open their season, but dropped a close game at Campbell, 3-2 last Tuesday. ECU was then swept by North Carolina, falling 2-0 to the Tar Heels on Saturday at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, 11-6 on Sunday in Chapel Hill, and 6-3 on Monday in Greenville.
Alex Peltier is batting .280 and Walker Barron has a .250 average to lead the Pirates at the plate. Following them are Kenan Bowman (.217), former Monarch Alex Bouche (.208), and Braden Burress (.200). Dixon Williams (.192) has driven in six runs while Bouche and Colby Wallace (.080) have scored four times each. ECU is batting .206 as a team and owns a .350 slugging percentage with a .291 on-base percentage.
Right-hander Jaden Winter will make his first start of the season on Wednesday. The redshirt junior is 3-2 with a 7.82 ERA in his first three seasons as a Pirate. ECU owns a team ERA of 4.72 with opposing teams batting .210 against them.
The Series
ODU leads the all-time series, 36-33. The two teams split a home-and-home series last season. The Monarchs defeated the then-No. 11 Pirates, 6-5 on Feb. 27, 2024 in Norfolk on a walk-off Steven Meier home run. The two teams then met again on April 10 in Greenville, a game that went to the No. 9 Pirates, 7-5. Down 7-4 heading into the ninth inning, Kyle Edwards provided a spark with a one-out solo home run to right field. Luke Waters doubled with two outs and ECU intentionally walked Bouche, but Kenny Levari went down swinging to end the game.
Up Next
ODU will travel to Murfreesboro, Tennessee this weekend to play St. Bonaventure, UT Martin and Middle Tennessee at MTSU’s Reese Smith Jr. Field. The Monarchs will play the Bonnies on Friday at 5 p.m. EST and the Skyhawks on Saturday at 1 p.m. EST. ODU will then take on the Blue Raiders at 1 p.m. EST on Sunday.