NEW ORLEANS – Old Dominion baseball’s Will Johnson has been named the Sun Belt Player of the Week, as announced by the conference office on Tuesday afternoon. The weekly honor was voted on by the league’s 14 head coaches and marks Johnson’s first in his time as a Monarch.
A junior infielder from Allen, Texas, Johnson led ODU at the plate this past weekend at No. 8 Coastal Carolina, hitting .643 (9-for-14) with a 1.000 slugging percentage and a .667 on-base percentage. His other series totals included one home run, two doubles, five runs scored, four RBIs, one walk, and one sacrifice bunt. He recorded multiple hits and scored at least one run in all three games versus the Chanticleers.
In Friday’s series opening loss to Coastal, Johnson finished 2-for-5 with a double and two runs. He then helped the Monarchs (27-24, 13-14 Sun Belt) even the series on Saturday, batting 4-for-5 with a double, two RBIs and a run scored. Then in Sunday’s rubber match, he set the tone early with a solo home run on the second pitch of the game, his fourth long ball of the season. He hit 3-for-4 with the solo home run, drove in two runs, scored two more, had one base on balls, and also contributed a sacrifice bunt.
The Monarchs went on to win the series finale, 9-2. It marked ODU’s first series win over a Top 10 program since the Silver and Blue won two of three games at then-No. 7 Southern Miss on May 6-8, 2022. The series win also snapped CCU’s streak of winning 16 series in a row at home. The Chanticleers had not lost a Sun Belt series since they dropped two games at Troy on March 21-23 last year. The two wins also vaulted Old Dominion into the Top 100 in RPI rankings, with the Monarch moving from 118th to 95th.
Johnson entered the week hitting .322 and raised his batting average to .346. The ODU shortstop leads the team this season with 19 multi-hit games and 12 multi-run games. He’s also third with 10 multi-RBI games.
ODU is currently in a three-way tie for seventh place in the Sun Belt standings alongside Texas State and Marshall. The Monarchs are looking to secure a top-six seed for the upcoming conference tournament and will close out the regular season with a TowneBank Royal Rivalry series against in-state rival James Madison this week. Thursday’s series opener is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start at the Ellmer Family Baseball Complex. The teams will return for a 3 p.m. game on Friday and will close out the series with a 1 p.m. start on Saturday.