Old Dominion (10-9, 1-2 Sun Belt) vs. App State (10-9, 0-3 Sun Belt)
Game Location – Ellmer Family Baseball Complex (Norfolk, Va.)
Game 1 – Friday, March 20 at 6 p.m.
Game 2 – Saturday, March 21 at 3 p.m.
Game 3 – Sunday, March 22 at 2 p.m.
Watch – ESPN+ (Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3)
Live Stats – Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
Social Media – Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion Baseball continues its homestand with a Sun Belt series versus App State this weekend at the Ellmer Family Baseball Complex. Friday’s series opener is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start and Saturday will begin at 3 p.m. Sunday’s series finale, originally scheduled for 1 p.m., has been moved back to 2 p.m. due to the Celebration of Life Ceremony for the late Lieutenant Colonel Brandon A. Shah.
Fans unable to attend will be able to watch all three games on ESPN+, with Ted Alexander calling balls and strikes on Friday and Andy Mashaw covering the rest of the series. Live stats will also be available.
Game Day Information
Fans planning to attend this weekend’s series will be able to park at the Elkhorn Garage, located on the corner of 43rd Street and Elkhorn Avenue, as well as in Lot 43 at the LR Hill Sports Complex. This year’s entrance to the stadium is located in the outfield next to ODU’s Chemistry Building, and temporary seating will be available in left center field. A Power Alley Patio, presented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), will feature a food truck and beer garden. Portable toilets have been set up outside, and fans will also be able to use restrooms inside of the Jim Jarrett Athletic Administration Building.
General admission tickets are $10 apiece, with faculty and military tickets priced at $8 and $5 for children ages 2-12. Fans can also purchase ODU Baseball Voucher Books here, which includes 25 tickets for $100 plus applicable fees.
New this year, Big Blue’s Kids Club members will receive free admission for all ODU Baseball home games. For more information and to sign up for the Kids Club, click here. For those wishing to do a group outing to the Ellmer Family Baseball Complex, please fill out an interest form here or reach out to ODU Director of Ticket Sales Steven Landry at slandry@odu.edu or by calling the ODU Ticket Office at 757-683-3360.
The Series
Old Dominion traveled to Boone, North Carolina on March 28-29 last season. The Mountaineers grabbed the series opener 9-4 that Saturday, and the teams then split a Saturday doubleheader. The hosts secured the series victory with a 6-1 final in the first game, but ODU avoided the sweep with a 7-6 win in the second game of the twin bill.
ODU and App State have played 14 games against each other with the Monarchs holding a slight lead in the series, 8-6. Old Dominion is also 3-2 when hosting the Mountaineers.
Around the Horn
The Monarchs (10-9, 1-2 Sun Belt) run-ruled Norfolk State, 16-4 in seven innings on Wednesday afternoon to complete the home-and-home series sweep of the Spartans this season. ODU capitalized on three NSU errors in the bottom of the first to grab an early 4-0 lead, then added another six runs in the second inning and four more in the third. Nick Sulpizio (1-0) collected his first win of the season after a four-inning start. He held the Spartans to just two hits and one walk while striking out four.
Wednesday’s victory also marked head coach Chris Finwood’s 423rd in his time at Old Dominion. He is now tied with Bud Metheny as the program’s all-time winningest head coaches.
ODU has six starters hitting over .300: Tyler Zedalis (.400), Zach Leite (.386), Maverick Stallings (.373), Macaddin Dye (.370), TJ Aiken (.338), and Will Johnson (.304). Leite enters the weekend ranked 22nd in the country with 1.53 RBIs per game and is 29th in Division I with 29 RBIs. He and Zedalis have both hit four home runs, followed by Stallings with three. Aiken and Leite have scored 23 and 22 runs, respectively, and Aiken leads the team with eight steals on as many attempts.
The Monarchs average 7.3 runs per outing, a slight edge over the 7.2 runs they are allowing. As a team, ODU has the third-best batting average in the Sun Belt at .305. Old Dominion is also second in the league and 26th in the nation with 13 sac flies and ranks third in the SBC with 192 hits. The team owns a .449 slugging percentage, a .394 on-base percentage, and is 26-for-27 on stolen-base attempts.
Right-hander Ben Tanton (1-0, 2.08 ERA) will start on Friday and lefty Cole Lanford (1-0, 5.40 ERA) will start on Saturday. The Monarchs have not named a Sunday starter yet. The Silver and Blue have a team ERA of 6.75 with opponents hitting .304 against them.
ODU is 224th in the latest RPI rankings.
Scouting App State
The Mountaineers (10-9, 0-3) opened conference play against then-No. 16 Coastal Carolina last weekend in Boone. The series opener was tied at 6-6 through eight complete inning, but the Chanticleers used a four-run top of the ninth to secure the win. App State led 4-0 through seven innings last Saturday, but CCU plated seven runs in the final two innings for a 7-4 final. Sunday’s series finale was knotted at 7-7 heading into the eighth inning when Coastal’s Trace Mazon was hit by a pitch, took second on a Blake Barthol sac bunt, and scored on a Walker Mitchell base hit to right field. App State’s midweek game at High Point on Tuesday was canceled.
App State has four starters hitting over the .300 mark: Drew DuPont (.391), Steven Smith (.354), Jonathan Xuereb (.319), and Joseph Zamora (.310). The trio of Zamore, Ethan Puig (.266), and Nico Soul (.247) have scored a combined 62 runs, while DuPont and Soul have driven in 20 and 18 runs, respectively. Soul leads the team with five homers, and DuPont, Zamora, and Soul are each 4-for-5 when trying to steal.
The Mountaineers have scored the second-most runs in the Sun Belt so far with 151. They’re averaging 7.9 runs per game while holding opponents to 6.4 runs. App State is hitting .292 as a team, ranks third in the SBC wit ha .456 slugging percentage, and also owns a .407 on-base percentage. The team ranks 25th in the country in hit by pitch (44), 26th in sac flies (13), 27th in triples (7), and 28th in triples per game (0.37).
ODU will face right-hander Nick DiRito (1-1, 3.00 ERA) on Friday, righty Gage Peterson (3-0, 1.24 ERA) on Saturday, and lefty Tanner Nolan (2-0, 6.00 ERA) on Sunday. Peterson ranks 17th in the country with 41 strikeouts and is 21st in ERA. DiRito ranks 15th nationally with 14.25 strikeouts per nine innings, and Nolan is tied for 13th with eight hit batters. App State pitching has a combined ERA of 5.10 and is holding opposing batters to a .249 clip. The team ranks 25th in DI with 10.9 strikeouts per nine innings, but has also hit the third-most batters in the Sun Belt with 37.
The Mountaineers were picked to finish 10th in the Sun Belt’s Preseason Coaches’ Poll with Zamora and Kameron Miller landing on the Preseason All-Sun Belt Team. App State is 213th in the latest RPI rankings and is led by head coach Kermit Smith, who is in his 10th season with the program.
Up Next
ODU will host William & Mary next Tuesday, March 24 for the first game in a home-and-home series with the Tribe. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.