Old Dominion (27-24, 13-14 Sun Belt) vs. James Madison (20-30, 10-17 Sun Belt)
Game Location – Ellmer Family Baseball Complex (Norfolk, Va.)
Game 1 – Thursday, May 14 at 6 p.m.
Game 2 – Friday, May 15 at 3 p.m.
Game 3 – Saturday, May 16 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 will round out the regular season with a TowneBank Royal Rivalry series versus James Madison this weekend at the Ellmer Family Baseball Complex.
The Monarchs and Dukes open the series with a 6 p.m. game on Thursday. They then return for a 3 p.m. start on Friday and will play at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
On Thursday, in recognition of Mother’s Day, ODU players will throw out a first pitch to their mothers in attendance. Friday’s game will mark Senior Day for the Monarchs and they will recognize Kellen Davis, Evan Holman, Ethan Hubbell, Cash Jay, Patrick Johnson, Zach Leite, Bailey Matela, Connor Schumann, Jack Slater, Maverick Stallings, Tyler Stott, and Scotty Young. ODU will also hold a graduation ceremony before Saturday’s first pitch.
Ted Alexander will call all three games on ESPN+, and live stats will also be available.
Game Day Information
Fans planning to attend this weekend’s games 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 and in Lot 42 near the ODU Sailing Center, located off of Powhatan Avenue behind Powhatan Apartments and Whitehurst Hall. 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 117 times, with ODU ahead in the all-time series, 64-52-1.
Old Dominion made the trip to Harrisonburg, Virginia on May 9-11 last season and completed a Sun Belt series sweep of the Dukes. ODU won the series opener, 6-4 thanks to a Luke Waters two-RBI double in the top of the 12th inning. In the second game, Waters hit 5-for-5 and homered twice as the Monarchs came away with a 9-6 victory. In the final game, alumni Blake Morgan held JMU to two runs on five hits and two walks as ODU completed the sweep with a 4-2 final. Nick Sulpizio picked up his first career save after three shutout innings, striking out two and walking one without allowing a hit.
JMU currently holds a three-point lead in this year’s Royal Rivalry standings, 8.5-5.5, though a sweep by ODU would see the schools tie for the second year in a row.
Around the Horn
The Monarchs (27-24, 13-14 Sun Belt) won two of three games at then-No. 8 Coastal Carolina last weekend, marking ODU’s first series win over a Top 10 team since taking two of three games at No. 7 Southern Miss on May 6-8, 2022. After dropping the series opener 16-8 last Friday, the Monarchs evened the series with a 6-3 win on Saturday behind a career day from freshman reliever Ben Tanton. The Vestal, New York native improved to 7-0 and struck out seven while holding the Chanticleers to one hit and one walk in five shutout innings out of the pen. On Sunday, Jackson Okonkwo and Nick Sulpizio limited Coastal to two runs as the Monarchs clinched the series win, 9-2.
ODU enters its final week of conference play in a three-way tie for seventh place in the Sun Belt standings alongside Texas State and Marshall. The top six teams will secure spots in the Sun Belt Championship double-elimination bracket, while seeds seven through 10 will play in the single-elimination round. The Monarchs are one of eight Sun Belt teams currently in the Top 100 in RPI, coming in at 94th.
Will Johnson was named Sun Belt Player of the Week on Tuesday after the junior infielder from Allen, Texas hit .643 (9-for-14) with a home run, two doubles, five runs, four RBIs, one walk, and a sacrifice bunt over the three games in Conway, South Carolina. The ODU shortstop had multiple hits and scored at least one run in each game. He entered last week hitting .322 and raised his batting average to .346. He leads the team with 19 multi-hit games and 12 multi-run games and is also third with 10 multi-RBI games.
Efrain Morales leads the Monarchs with a .362 clip and has made 33 starts in 39 appearances, primarily batting as the team’s designated hitter. Other starters hitting over the .300 mark include Johnson, Stallings (.324), and Leite (.309), while Brody Connors owns a .333 clip in three starts and 15 games played. Stallings has reached base in 25 games, while Morales has an active reached base streak of 24 games and is fourth in the Sun Belt with a .472 on-base percentage. Leite, the senior first baseman from Dana Point, California, is second in the league and 24th in the country with 62 RBIs. He’s also second in the SBC with 1.22 RBIs per game and is the conference leader with six sacrifice flies. Freshman outfielder Nick Felton (.258) ranks fourth nationally in both sac bunts (13) and sac bunts per game (0.30), while TJ Aiken (.238) is third in the Sun Belt in walks (42) and walks per game (0.82). He and Johnson are tied for the team lead in runs scored with 41 each, and Aiken has also stolen 15 bases on 19 attempts.
As a team, ODU is fourth in the conference in batting average (.285), sac flies (25), and shutouts (3) and ranks fifth in on-base percentage (.388) and walks (222). The Monarchs have a slugging percentage of .413 and are scoring 6.6 runs per game while allowing 7.0.
The ODU pitching rotation will see right-handers Darin Kuskie (3-7, 7.76 ERA) and JJ Gatti (0-5, 4.79 ERA) starting on Thursday and Friday, respectively, with Saturday’s hurler still to be determined. Kuskie leads the team with 56 strikeouts and Gatti is next with 49. Tanton’s seven victories are tied for third in the Sun Belt, and Davis is ODU’s saves leader with three. Monarch pitchers have combined for a 6.43 ERA with opponents batting .298 against them.
Scouting James Madison
The Dukes (20-30, 10-17 Sun Belt) have dropped four in a row and were swept by then-No. 12 Southern Miss last weekend in Harrisonburg. After falling 5-4 in 10 innings at George Washington last Tuesday, JMU dropped the series opener to the Golden Eagles, 8-5 last Friday. USM then run-ruled JMU, 11-1 in eight innings on Saturday and completed the sweep with a 10-5 final on Sunday.
Leading JMU at the plate are Josiah Seguin (.333), Kyle Langley (.330), Cameron Aycock (.324), Clay Thompson (.323), Reece Moody (.306), and Ryan Gocio (.304). Thompson ranks third in the conference with 0.39 doubles per game and has hit the fourth-most doubles in the league with 18. Moody has tripled three times this season, good for fourth in the SBC. Ike Schmidly (.289) has belted a team-high 11 home runs, followed by Wyatt Campbell (.230) with eight and Sequin with seven. Langley has scored a team-high 39 runs while Schmidly owns a team-best 42 RBIs. Jack Guerrero (.270) and Langley are both fifth in the Sun Belt and 14th in Division I with 10 sac bunts each. Moody is the top threat to steal, ranking 17th nationally with 32 swiped bags and 24th with 0.64 steals per game.
James Madison enters the series ranked second in the country with 61 sac bunts. The Dukes are also 11th in the nation with 133 stolen bases, are 14th with 2.66 steals per game, and rank fifth in the Sun Belt with 11 triples and 0.22 triples per game. They’re hitting .276 as a team with a .419 slugging percentage and a .366 on-base percentage. JMU scores 5.8 runs per contest, but is allowing 7.46 runs.
On the mound, the Dukes will start right-hander Patrick Bauer (1-3, 5.33 ERA) on Thursday and lefty Tyler Lutz (3-5, 5.15 ERA) on Saturday. JMU has not named a starter for Friday. The two arms have recorded 45 and 43 strikeouts, respectively, while teammate Jaden Kinsler (4-2, 5.05 ERA) is close behind them with 40. Luke McGrath (2-2, 6.00 ERA) has earned four saves, and Kinsler is next with three saves. JMU pitchers own a combined ERA of 6.95 with opponents hitting .300 against them. The Dukes have also hit the second-most batters in the conference with 89.
JMU is led by head coach Marlin Ikenberry, who is in his 11th season with the program. He shares ties with ODU head coach Chris Finwood and assistant coach Jonathan Hadra as all three have coached at their alma mater, VMI. Finwood led the Keydets from 1992-94, Ikenberry was there from 2004-14, and Hadra coached there from 2015-22. Additionally, Jack Slater’s father, Tom Slater, was VMI’s head coach from 2001-03.
The Dukes are currently 13th in the Sun Belt standings and will need to sweep the Monarchs and get some outside help to secure a spot in next week’s conference tournament. JMU is 174th in the latest RPI rankings.
Up Next
The Sun Belt Championship will be held next Tuesday through Sunday, May 19-24, at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery, Alabama. The championship final is scheduled for Sunday, May 24 at 2 p.m. ET with the winner receiving the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. For more information, visit the conference’s championship central page here.