Minium: Blake Morgan Has Been An Inspiration, On and Off The Field, For ODU Baseball

By Harry Minium

NORFOLK, Va. – Blake Morgan was on a roll. The lefty was throwing with emotion and confidence and also with velocity and accuracy. His pitch count was low and Marshall batters simply could not get the bat on his fast ball, curve or changeup.

So, on Sunday, May 4, Old Dominion Head Baseball Coach Chris Finwood resisted the urge to yank the senior from Marlton, New Jersey, in favor of a reliever.

Morgan went on to throw a complete game, the first in seven years for ODU, as the Monarchs defeated the Herd, 8-2.

“That performance was a huge spark for our whole team,” said Mike Marron, ODU’s pitching coach.

Marron said that complete game helped lead to the hot streak that the Monarchs took into this week's three-game series against Coastal Carolina. Morgan will get the nod to start in Game 2 today at 3 p.m. as ODU takes on the Sun Belt's best team at Hampton's War Memorial Stadium. 

ODU (21-27 overall, 15-13 Sun Belt) has won eight of its last 10 games and has clinched a bid to the Sun Belt Tournament. Marron said Morgan’s complete game played a huge role in giving the Monarchs momentum.

“It’s no surprise that that type of performance happened right in the middle of us playing some of our best baseball of the season,” Marron added. “Those two things are not coincidental.

“It gave our entire team a big boost.”

A complete game is a rare thing in modern college baseball. That’s in part of the modern focus on pitch counts, the development of specialized pitchers in the bullpen and simply because coaches don’t want their best pitchers to injure their arms.

There have been just 13 complete games thrown in the 717 Sun Belt Conference games this season and starters went the distance in just 0.6 percent of Major League Baseball games in 2024.

And Finwood, for one, is especially careful with his starting pitchers.

“Finny doesn’t like guys to get tired and doesn’t want them to get hurt,” Morgan said. “He’s been in this business long enough to be smart about sending guys back out there.

“So, looking back on it, I’m just super happy that he had the faith in me to be able to go out there and finish the game, that he had trust in me to keep putting up zeroes.”

Morgan had a rough start against Marshall, as he walked the first batter and then gave up a home run.

“So, it’s 2-0 with no outs,” Finwood said. “Not a great way to begin a game.

“But then he got 27 outs after that without giving up a run. He really threw a nine-inning shutout.

“As the game wore on, I thought about taking him out. But he was just on fire. He had so much confidence. He only threw 112 pitches. So, we decided to leave him out there.”

Morgan hasn’t had a smooth ride in his ODU career. He blew out his knee during his junior year in high school playing basketball and had surgery before he ever arrived at ODU.

He was nonetheless an instant star at ODU. In 13 starts as a freshman he went 8-0 with a 1.69 ERA. ODU was 12-1 in games in which he started. He was named a D1Baseball Freshman All-American and the Conference USA Freshman of the Year.

He slumped in what turned out to be a nightmarish sophomore season. He was 3-5 with a 6.37 ERA in 14 appearances for the Monarchs, and again reinjured his knee late in the season when he ran to cover first base on an infield ground out.

“The throw was a little high, so I jumped for it and when I did, my foot was already kind of planted,” he said. “I felt something pop and click and right away. I kind of knew what it was.”

He had offseason knee surgery and, Marron says, wasn’t quite himself when he returned for the 2024 season. He was 2-1 in 13 appearances with a 4.50 ERA. But by the end of the season, he was regaining his form of old as he tossed four shutout innings against No. 21 Louisiana in the Sun Belt Tournament.

“It really hampered his ability to get ready for his junior year,” Marron said. “He used most of that year to kind of get into form. And to his credit, he did a really good job using last summer and fall to prepare for this spring.

“You saw the fruits of that labor in how he’s pitched this season.”

Morgan is 5-3 with a 4.64 ERA but those stats don’t truly reflect how well he’s thrown this season, Finwood said.

Morgan has been ODU’s Sunday starter this season and the Monarchs are 7-2 on Sundays.

“When this guy starts, we usually win,” Finwood said. "We’ve got better than an 80 percent chance of winning when that kid starts and that’s unbelievable. He’s just had a fantastic year.”

Morgan and ODU face a tall challenge today. Coastal's starting pitcher, Jacob Morrison, is 9-0 with a 1.87 ERA. The 6-foot-8, 245-pound sophomore is one of 67 semifinalists for the Dick Howser Award, given to the nation's best player.

Prior to today's game, 11 ODU players, including Morgan, will receive their college degrees. They missed ODU's graduation last weekend while playing, and sweeping, a series at James Madison.

Morgan is looking forward to graduation with a ton of conflicting emotions. He acknowledged to struggling academically as a freshman, but will graduate with a degree in leadership, with a minor in criminal justice, with a B+ average.

His parents, Joe and Colleen Morgan, will at today's game along with his brother, Zack. Joe works at the Philadelphia shipyard and Colleen is a hair dresser and because college baseball is a sport where full scholarships are few and far between, his parents have financially supported him at ODU.

“My Mom has worked overtime and my dad has done tons of shift work to help me,” Morgan said. “My parents, they do everything for me.”

Morgan’s career path is becoming a rarity in college athletics in the era of the transfer portal and NIL – he’s played all four seasons at ODU.

Because Bud Metheny Ballpark is undergoing a $24 million renovation, the Monarchs haven’t had any true home games. In other words, this was a good year to look elsewhere.

“I never seriously thought about going into the portal,” he said.

“The main reason is the people here, from the coaches to Miss Amy (Amy Lynch, ODU’s director of student athlete services and community engagement), to all of my friends here.

“I’ve developed a lot of real relationships here. I love how everyone cares about you. I had some struggles my first year in the classroom and everyone here, they just had my back and worked with me so hard.

“I mean, I just love this place. I love that the campus isn’t overwhelming. I love the people. I love being here every day.”

All good things do come to an end, but Marron says he thinks Morgan, whose fastball tops out at 93 miles per hour, has a future in the pros.

“He’s done a good job of putting himself in a position to get professional interest and continue to play,” he said.

Character matters to pro baseball teams and Marron said he can’t imagine a more hard working or more genuine person than Morgan.

“He not only has a high care level for how he does but he has as much of a care level for others,” Marron said. “He really cares about this program and this block OD,” he added pointing toward an “OD” baseball logo on his shirt.

“There’s never a day that he comes to the field, on game day or in practice, that he isn’t fully invested in his work and the work of his team. 

“He’s incredibly genuine and authentic. He’s been a fantastic representative of this program and his university. He’s been awesome, an absolute joy to coach.”

 Minium is ODU’s senior executive writer. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram