Minium: After 18 Games, ODU's Baseball "Road Warriors" Finally Play a Home Game
By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – From their perch in the Old Dominion bullpen, relief pitchers Bailey Matela and Kellen Davis have had front row seats to absorb the kind of catcalling you often suffer when you play for the most prolific road warriors in all of college baseball.
ODU has played 18 games, all on the road, in eight cities, from Atlanta to Biloxi and Hattiesburg, Mississippi to Williamsburg. At each stop on what has so far been a nearly 7,000-mile journey, there were few friendly faces in the stands, and quite a few unpleasant comments.
“We heard all sorts of stuff,” said Davis, a redshirt junior from Media, Pennsylvania in suburban Philadelphia. “We heard a lot of stuff we probably shouldn’t repeat.
“Auburn was probably the worst. They were really giving it to our right fielder (Kainen Jorge). Southern Miss, that wasn’t bad. Their fans just said basic stuff.
“But Auburn fans, they did their research.”
Friday afternoon, the Monarchs will finally play a “home” game, and the asterisks are meaningful. ODU’s Bud Metheny Ballpark is undergoing a $24 million renovation and for the first time since The Bud opened in 1983, the Monarchs won’t play a game on campus.
ODU Begins $24 Million Makeover of Baseball Stadium
ODU takes on Georgia State Friday at 3 p.m. at War Memorial Stadium in Hampton. And while War Memorial Stadium is a cozy and historic ballpark, it’s located 20 miles, and a 30-to 60-minute drive from ODU’s Norfolk campus, depending on traffic.
“It will be nice to have people there who are cheering for us and not against us,” said Matela, a native of Norfolk’s Larchmont neighborhood who played at Greenbrier Christian High School.
“We may not have as many as we would have if we’d been playing here. But it will still be nice.”
ODU will also play games Saturday and Sunday against Georgia State at War Memorial Stadium and split the remaining 12 Sun Belt Conference home games between Harbor Park, home of the Norfolk Tides, and War Memorial Stadium, where the Peninsula Pilots play.
ODU will also play VCU at War Memorial Stadum on April 15 and make a rare road appearance at Norfolk State on April 8.
Painful, yes, but the Monarchs know it will be worth the sacrifice next season when they move into a modern facility with a posh locker room, chairback seats and luxury suites.
The Monarchs are able to practice at The Bud, but their locker rooms and coaches’ offices have been demolished.
ODU has set up a makeshift locker area in the Jim Jarrett Athletic Building. Coaches are located at desks jammed into one large room.
Practice has been fine, Matela said, but he said he underestimated how difficult it would be to play every game on the road.
“The hardest thing is living out of a hotel room,” Matela said. “You don’t have much else to do but wait for the game or go down and stretch. We don’t have a field where we can just go to.”
The Monarchs have played one of the nation’s most difficult schedules – the 16th best, according to D1Baseball – and it’s shown in their record. ODU is 5-13 but because of its strength of schedule, is ranked 72nd in the nation and fourth in the Sun Belt in the NCAA RPI in spite of its record.
The Monarchs have not had a losing record since 2018 and plan to finish with a winning record once again.
“We’re used to winning and it doesn’t feel good to not be winning as much as we usually do,” Matela said.
Seven games have come against Top 20 teams – ODU won two, at Auburn and Southern Miss. ODU opened the season with three losses at Georgia Tech of the ACC.
Matela says now that Sun Belt Conference play has begun, things really get serious.
“We’re as prepared as we can be for conference play,” he said. “And we’ve just got to go out one game at a time and just try to start making games up.
“Those other games, they mattered toward our overall record. But the Sun Belt schedule is key for us.”
Both Matela and Davis walked on at ODU without a scholarship, and both have since earned playing time. They’ve also become close – they are roommates on road trips, and this season, that’s meant spending a ton of time together.
ODU Pitching Coach Mike Marron said that both needed a lot of development before they could play at ODU. Now, he says, they are anchoring the bullpen.
“They were both promised an opportunity and they knew it was up to them to try and take advantage of that,” he said. “Bailey has been able to have an impact at different points of his first two years and he’s really grown a lot this year in a positive way.”
Davis, a redshirt junior, sat out as a freshman and then played sparingly his second year.
“Kellen was not very good in his first year,” ODU Head Coach Chris Finwood said. “But he was a great kid who worked hard and we liked him.
“We didn’t know if he was ever going to pitch. But to his credit, he worked that summer and developed this pitch, I don’t even know what it is, it’s just this knuckle curve ball, that just dances and does something different every time.
“We used him some last year and this year, his velocity is up a bit and he’s been one of our more reliable guys. He throws strikes and he’s not scared.”
“When he throws,” Matela said of the pitch Davis developed two summers ago, “it just disappears. Hitters can’t see it.”
Davis is 0-1 with two saves in six appearances with a 4.70 ERA and has allowed opponents to hit a paltry .214. He’s struck out a third of the 28 batters he’s faced.
And about those Auburn fans? For one night, at least, he had the last laugh.
Davis picked up a save at Auburn two weeks ago as the Monarchs rallied from a 9-2 deficit to pick up an 11-9 victory. He retired four of five batters he faced.
Matela, who was more highly recruited than Kellen, said when ODU began to recruit him, he immediately committed, turning down partial scholarship offers from other schools.
“I’ve always wanted to play at ODU,” he said. “I wanted to play in front of my family and friends.”
Matela is 0-1 with a save and a 6.35 ERA. He’s held batters to a composite .208 batting average. He consistently throws in the low 90s.
“The last two years he’s been up and down and shown flashes of brilliance,” Finwood said. “This year he’s been much more consistent. He’s done a really good job. He’s grown up some and has been reliable for us.
“They’ve both solidified the back end for us.”
Both credit Marron for their development.
“He’s a great guy to play for,” Matela said. “He has your back no matter what. I don’t think there are many people like him in college baseball.”
Finwood said playing a “home” game in Hampton won’t be like truly playing at home.
“When we get there for batting practice, it will be the first time we’ve been on that field,” Finwood said. “It’s not really a home game, although it is in our area code. I guess that’s progress.
“But we’ll have to get used to the dimensions and everthing else in the stadium, like we have every road game.
“And hopefully we’ll have a few fans there.”
Who won't heckle the guys wearing ODU blue.
Minium is ODU’s senior executive writer. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram