Old Dominion (20-19, 8-10 Sun Belt) vs. East Carolina (24-16-1, 9-6 American)
Game Location – Ellmer Family Baseball Complex (Norfolk, Va.)
When – Tuesday, April 21 at 6 p.m.
Watch – ESPN+
Live Stats – Click Here
Social Media – Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion Baseball meets East Carolina for the second time this season when the Monarchs host the Pirates for a 6 p.m. midweek game at the Ellmer Family Baseball Complex this Tuesday.
Andy Mashaw will cover the game on ESPN+, and live stats will also be available.
Game Day Information
Fans planning to attend Tuesday’s game 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
Tuesday’s game will mark the second meeting in the home-and-home series between the two programs. ODU made the drive down to Greenville, North Carolina on Tuesday, March 10 and fell 11-0 to ECU in seven innings. Will Johnson went 1-for-2 with a walk and Tyler Zedalis finished 1-for-3 to lead the Monarchs at the plate. Bailey Matela took the loss after giving up three runs on three hits and a walk in a 1.1-inning start.
ODU leads the all-time series by one game, 36-35.
Around the Horn
The Monarchs (20-19, 8-10 Sun Belt) are coming off a 4-0 week that featured a pair of walk-off wins as well as a Sun Belt sweep of Georgia Southern. ODU edged Richmond, 10-9 last Wednesday thanks to a Jack Slater RBI single in the bottom of the 10th. The team then grabbed the series opener versus the Eagles 8-3 on Friday, and picked up the series win on Saturday when Nick Felton hit a walk-off RBI single for a 7-6 final. The Monarchs then completed the sweep with a 6-3 win on Sunday as Zedalis and Maverick Stallings both homered.
Efrain Morales leads the team with a .353 batting average, Leite is next with a .333 clip, and Zedalis is hitting .329. Also hitting over the .300 mark are Johnson (.328) and Stallings (.303). Leite leads the Sun Belt with five sac flies and is also second in the league and 21st in the country with 50 RBIs. Zedalis and Stallings have hit nine and eight home runs, respectively. TJ Aiken (.268) has scored a team-high 35 runs, followed by Leite with 34 and Johnson at 31. Aiken is also third in the conference in both walks (32) and walks per game (0.82) and has stolen 12 bases on 14 attempts. Felton (.224) enters the week ranks second in Division I with 0.32 sac bunts per game and is also fifth nationally with 10 sac bunts.
ODU is hitting .284 as a team with a .415 slugging percentage and a .386 on-base percentage. The Monarchs average 6.5 runs per game, but have allowed 7.1. The team is fifth in the SBC with 19 sac flies.
On the mound, the Monarchs will start freshman right-hander Jackson Okonkwo, who is 0-2 with a 9.27 ERA through two starts and nine appearances. He has surrendered 24 runs, 23 of them earned, on 40 hits and five walks. The Virginia Beach native has recorded 11 strikeouts over 22.1 innings pitched. Old Dominion comes into Tuesday with a team ERA of 6.64 and opponents batting .310 against them.
The Monarchs are listed 138th in the latest RPI rankings.
Scouting East Carolina
The Pirates (24-16-1, 9-6 American) went 2-2 last week. After dropping their midweek game to NC State, 10-3 last Tuesday, ECU won its first two games against American Conference foe Wichita State, 7-1 on Friday and 7-1 again on Saturday. However, the Shockers avoided getting swept by winning the series finale, 13-1 on Sunday.
ECU has six starters hitting over .300: Jack Herring (.353), Braden Burress (.340), Davin Whitaker (.330), Colby Wallace (.316), Matt Lashley (.315), and Grady Lenahan (.305). Herring and Lenahan have homered seven times each, Whitaker leads the American with three triples, and Herring and Wallace have combined for 22 doubles. Lenahan have driven in 40 runs, Herring and Burress have scored 39 runs each, and Herring leads the conference with 34 walks. Lenahan (9-for-10) and Burress (9-for-12) are the top threats to steal.
The Pirates are hitting .294 as a team with a .451 slugging percentage and a .394 on-base percentage. They have the fourth-best best batting average in their conference and are also second in doubles (79) and third in doubles per game (1.93). ECU scores 7.1 runs per game while holding its opponents to 5.0 runs.
ODU will face left-hander Nick Moran, a senior from Wake Forest, North Carolina who is 1-0 with a 5.28 ERA. In one start and seven appearances, he has allowed nine runs on 11 hits and five walks while striking out 12 through 15.1 innings of work. Moran is also holding opposing batters to a .216 average.
Through games played on April 19, ECU is ranked 41st in RPI.
Up Next
ODU will be away in Atlanta, Georgia this weekend for a Sun Belt series at Georgia State.