Old Dominion (17-19, 5-10 Sun Belt) vs. Georgia Southern (12-24, 5-10 Sun Belt)
Game Location – Ellmer Family Baseball Complex (Norfolk, Va.)
Game 1 – Friday, April 17 at 6 p.m.
Game 2 – Saturday, April 18 at 3 p.m.
Game 3 – Sunday, April 19 at 1 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 Georgia Southern this weekend at the Ellmer Family Baseball Complex. Friday’s series opener is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start, the teams will return for a 3 p.m. game on Saturday, and Sunday’s series finale will begin at 1 p.m.
All three games will be streamed on ESPN+, with Andy Mashaw calling the action on Friday and Saturday and Weston DeWitt providing play-by-play on Sunday. 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
The two teams have previously met 14 times with the series knotted at 7-7. ODU made the trip to Statesboro, Georgia on April 11-13 last year and won the series, two games to one. The Monarchs edged the Eagles, 7-6 in the series opener thanks to strong outings by Ben Moore and Ethan Hubbell and a five-run fourth inning. The hosts then evened the series with a 5-4 final in the second game.
In the rubber match, Georgia Southern built an early 5-0 lead and lead 10-5 through seven innings, but Old Dominion erupted for 10 runs in the eighth and held on for a 15-10 victory. Evan Holman finished 3-for-3 on the day with a grand slam, two doubles, three runs, and five RBIs.
Around the Horn
After dropping two of three games at Marshall last weekend, the Monarchs (17-19, 5-10 Sun Belt) got back in the win column with a 10-9 extra-innings victory over Richmond on Wednesday night. After the Spiders scored two runs in the ninth inning to tie the game at 9-9, Jack Slater walked it off in the 10th with an RBI single to left center, scoring Cash Jay from third. Tyler Stott picked up his first career win after retiring the Spiders in order in the top of the 10th, and Maverick Stallings went 3-for-4 with a three-run home run, a double, three runs, four RBIs, and a walk to lead the Monarchs at the plate.
ODU has five starters hitting over .300: Efrain Morales (.347), Zach Leite (.338), Tyler Zedalis (.315), Will Johnson (.310), and Stallings (.308). Stallings leads the team with seven home runs and 11 doubles, Zedalis has gone yard six times, and Leite has hit five long balls. Leite leads the team and ranks third in the Sun Belt with 46 RBIs and is also second in the league with 1.28 RBIs per game. TJ Aiken (.281) has scored a team-high 34 runs, ranks fourth in the conference with 28 walks, and is 11-for-13 on stolen base attempts. Macaddin Dye (.268) has been hit by pitch 12 times, the fourth-most in the SBC. Nick Felton is hitting .217, but has recently propelled himself into the national rankings. The freshman from Odenton, Maryland enters the weekend ranked fourth in the country with 0.32 sac bunts per game and is seventh in Division I with nine sac bunts.
The Monarchs have a combined .282 batting average with a .409 slugging percentage and a .386 on-base percentage. The team is scoring 6.5 runs per game against 7.3 runs allowed per game.
Darin Kuskie (2-6, 9.34 ERA) will start on Friday and JJ Gatti (0-3, 4.75 ERA) will start on Saturday with Sunday’s starter still to be determined. Kuskie leads the team with 34 strikeouts while Gatti ranks fourth in the Sun Belt with 6.75 hits allowed per nine innings. Monarch pitching has combined for a 6.96 ERA with opponents hitting .312 against them.
Through games played on April 15, Old Dominion is 152nd in the RPI rankings.
Scouting Georgia Southern
The Eagles (12-24, 5-10 Sun Belt) have dropped three in a row and are coming off a 13-9 loss to No. 2 Georgia Tech on Tuesday night in Atlanta. GS scored four runs in the top of the first inning, but the Yellow Jackets manufactured at least a run in every inning, including multiple runs in the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth, to pull away.
At the plate, GS has five starters hitting over .300. They include Bryson Trammell (.373), James McCoy (.372), Brady Christman (.356), Bennett Edwards (.323), and Jack Myers (.308). McCoy comes into the series ranked second in the conference and 12th nationally with 16 doubles. The redshirt-senior outfielder is also second in the league in on-base percentage (.491), third in hits (51) and doubles per game (0.44), fourth in walks (28), and fifth in batting average and total bases (85). Christman leads the Eagles with seven home runs, though McCoy and Sean White have hit six each. McCoy and Myers have both driven in 30 runs, McCoy has scored 34 runs, and he’s also leading the team with 11 swiped bags on 13 attempts.
Georgia Southern will start right-hander Will Holder (1-3, 6.69 ERA) on Friday, but has not named starters for the other two games. Carter DeGondrea (1-3, 10.03 ERA) has made nine starts in 11 appearances, Ethan Garrett (0-7, 11.79 ERA) has six starts in 11 outings, and Alex Mason (2-2, 8.42 ERA) has five starts in 13 appearances. Reliever Brady Pendley (5-3, 4.75 ERA) ranks fourth in the SBC in victories and leads the team with 45 strikeouts. The Eagles own a 8.90 ERA as a team with opponents hitting .324 against them.
The Eagles rank fourth in the conference in both hits (359) and hit batters (63) and are fifth in the Sun Belt with 70 doubles. Head coach Rodney Hennon is in his 27th season leading the program and is five wins away from reaching 900 at GS. The team was picked to finish tied for seventh alongside ODU in the Sun Belt Preseason Coaches’ Poll and the Eagles are 165th in the RPI rankings.
Up Next
ODU will host East Carolina for a 6 p.m. game next Tuesday, April 21.