Old Dominion (5-12, 1-2 Sun Belt) at William & Mary (5-15, 0-0 CAA)
Game Location – Plumeri Park (Williamsburg, Va.)
Start Time – Wednesday, March 19 at 6 p.m.
Listen – Fox Sports Radio 1310 AM
Live Stats – Click Here
NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion Baseball wraps up its 18-game road trip this Wednesday when the Monarchs travel to Williamsburg for a midweek meeting with William & Mary.
First pitch at Plumeri Park is scheduled for 6 p.m. Andy Mashaw will cover the game on Fox Sports Radio 1310 and live stats will be available.
Around the Horn
After falling 11-2 at No. 22 Southern Miss on Friday and 11-4 on Saturday, the Monarchs (5-12, 2-1 Sun Belt) secured their second road win over a ranked opponent with a 4-1 final on Sunday. Blake Morgan held the Golden Eagles scoreless for seven innings before finally giving up a run in the eighth inning, and Tyler Zedalis was a double shy of hitting for the cycle. He finished 3-for-4 with his first career home run, a triple, and two RBIs.
Tahraun Hammond leads ODU with a .303 batting average. Following him are Scotty Young (.300), Zach Leite (.295), Kyle Edwards (.290), TJ Aiken (.270), and Kainen Jorge (.263). Aiken leads the team with three home runs, and he and Edwards both own 10 RBIs each. Leite and Efrain Morales (.234) have doubled four times each, and Jorge has drawn 16 walks. Edwards ranks second in the Sun Belt with nine stolen bases and 0.53 stolen bases per game. ODU enters Wednesday’s game hitting .240 as a team with a .347 slugging percentage and a .336 on-base percentage.
Nick Sulpizio (0-1, 4.50 ERA) will make his fifth appearance and second start. The sophomore right hander from Cherry Hill, N.J. has allowed four runs on seven hits and six walks while striking out six in eight innings of work. Opposing batters are hitting .250 against him.
ODU pitching has a combined ERA of 6.59 with opponents batting .269 against them. The Monarchs have allowed 19 home runs and 29 doubles and have walked 82 batters.
Scouting William & Mary
The Tribe (5-15, 0-0 CAA) split a pair of midweek games versus Princeton, but dropped all three of its games at East Carolina over the weekend. After falling 12-0 in seven innings on Friday, the teams played a doubleheader on Saturday. The Pirates took the first game of the twin bill 19-6 in seven innings, then claimed a close second game, 9-8.
Ben Parker leads the Tribe with a .410 batting average. Derek Holmes is next and hitting .383, Lucas Carmichael is batting .367, and Christian Rush is hitting .311. Parker leads the Colonial Athletic Association in hits (32) and runs scored (25) while Rush leads the team and conference with 23 RBIs. Parker has swiped five bags on seven attempts and Jamie Laskofski (.296) is 4-for-7 when attempting to steal.
William and Mary boasts a team batting average of .314, which leads the conference and is 36th in the nation. They have tallied a total of 208 hits, 148 runs, and seven triples, all of which are good for first in the CAA.
W&M will counter with left hander Chad Yates (0-3, 10.12 ERA), who has made four starts. A sophomore from Brambleton, Virginia, he has given up 14 runs (12 earned) on 19 hits and five walks while recording seven strikeouts through 10.2 innings pitched.
The Tribe has a combined team ERA of 11.00 and is allowing opponents to hit for an average of .343. They have surrendered 36 home runs and 40 doubles to go with 119 free passes.
The Series
Old Dominion leads the all-time series, 89-55 and has claimed seven of the last eight meetings. The most recent matchup was on March 5, 2024, in Norfolk, Virginia, a game the Monarchs won 6-2. A staff day for ODU, Blake Morgan received the win after holding the Tribe to one hit and two walks while fanning four in 2.1 innings pitched. Edwards went 3-for-5 on the day and drove in two runs with a triple and a double.
Up Next
ODU will host Georgia State for a Sun Belt series at War Memorial Stadium, home of the Peninsula Pilots, this weekend.