By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – If there is a player who truly represents what Old Dominion baseball is all about, it could be Maverick Stallings.
He’s hard working, quiet and blue collar. He’s also a gentlemen, a good student and good teammate who, when he gets knocked down in life, simply picks himself up and keeps on going.
The 6-foot, 190-pound second baseman was raised on a farm in Apopka, Florida and has the scars to prove it.
When he was three, he was kicked in the head by a horse his sister spooked. “That wasn’t too bad,” he said. “I only needed about 30 stitches.”
A year earlier, that same sister was holding him in her lap while a friend drove an ATV. A tree limb hit the driver in the face and she swerved and ran into a barbed-wire fence.
The barbed-wire did a number on Stallings.
“I had to get about 200 stitches for that one,” he said with a smile. “My face was all shredded and ripped. My lip was falling down on my face.
“It was nasty. I don’t remember it happening but do remember getting into the ambulance with blood going everywhere.”
That didn’t deter him from getting back on the ATV and back on a horse.
“When I go back home, I ride horses,” he said. “I love horses and love the farm.
“Cows, the really nice ones, are really cool. They’ll walk right up to you, the nice ones, and put their head on you like a dog.
“I had a great childhood. Great parents and brothers and sisters.”
The senior has also had a great career at ODU, and says he will leave with a ton of good memories, in spite of obstacles the Monarchs have faced the last two years.
ODU spent the entire 2025 season playing off campus as work began on a $24 million transformation of the Monarchs’ home stadium into the Ellmer Family Baseball Complex.
The Monarchs played some home games at Harbor Park and War Memorial Stadium in Hampton but did not play a true home game.
The Monarchs are playing at home this season – they host James Madison for a three-game set that began on Thursday night at 6 p.m. It is their final home stand of the season.
Because of construction delays that ODU officials said were unavoidable, fans are limited to sitting in the outfield and the team continues to dress in a makeshift locker room in the Jim Jarrett Administration Building.
“Everyone on the team, we’ve all handled this pretty well,” he said. “I think everyone on the team know as it was being built that it wouldn’t be ready this season.
“We were hoping to be in the locker rooms. Before the renovation began, we didn’t have the nicest locker rooms but after practice, four or five guys would sit there for hours after practice and just talk. We all miss that.
“But we’ve done pretty well with what we have. It’s not the same, but it’s still been fun.
“I think going what we’ve gone through has made us stronger and brought us closer together.”
The Monarchs got off to a poor start this season but have won six of their last seven, eight of their last 10, and 16 of their last 23 games, including back-to-back upsets of No. 8 Coastal Carolina last weekend in Conway, South Carolina.
“That was pretty sweet,” Stallings said of sweeping the Chanticleers, which advanced ODU to 94th in the D1 Baseball RPI.
“We always knew that this team had potential to play well. I’ve known that since fall ball. We can really be good. I think it’s just taken us longer to figure things out.
“We’ve really been playing better the last few weeks. We’re starting to put it all together.”
His full name is Euell Maverick Stallings and like many of ODU’s better players, he began his career in junior college. He was a star at Lake Brantley High School but says he wasn’t ready for a four-year school.
“I wasn’t developed enough,” he said. “I didn’t play travel ball, we couldn’t afford it, and I needed a couple of years to develop.”
He hit .328 with 15 home runs and 72 RBIs as a sophomore at Saint Johns River State College in Palatka, Florida and quickly drew interest from half a dozen Sun Belt Conference schools.
Ross Jones, his coach at Saint Johns, knows ODU Head Coach Chris Finwood and ODU Hitting Coach Jonathan Hadra.
“He thought a lot of both coach Finwood and Hadra and really talked them up,” he said. “My roommate, Jack Slater, we went to junior college together and he committed to ODU the fall before I committed anywhere.
“There were just so many connections to ODU that it made sense to come here.”
Stallings is having his best year at the plate for ODU. He’s hitting. 316 with 15 doubles, 11 home runs and 44 RBIs in 193 at bats. He’s 5-for-5 in stolen bases.
But he’s perhaps been even stronger with his glove. According to the 643charts, whose database more than 650 colleges use to scout baseball and softball players, Stallings was ranked as the nation’s sixth-best second baseman in defensive runs saved.
“Maverick has always finished strong,” Finwood said. “But this year he got off to a better start. He usually heats up in May, but he’s been good for us all season.”
ODU has a ton to play for this weekend. The Monarchs (29-24 overall, 15-14 Sun Belt) are in a three-way tie for sixth place in the Sun Belt with Louisiana and Texas State heading into Saturday’s final day of the regular season. ODU could conceivably finish as high as sixth and that would allow the Monarchs to avoid one of two play-in games in the Sun Belt Tournament, held May 19-24 in Montgomery, Alabama.
The play-in round involved seeds seven through 10, with the losers out and the winners set for the double-elimination tournament.
“It’s a lot easier to win the tournament” by avoiding the play-in game, Stallings said.
ODU may need to sweep three games from JMU to finish sixth and the Monarchs need to sweep, if possible, for another reason – the TowneBank Royal Rivalry.
ODU and JMU play each season in all sports for the TowneBank Royal Rivalry trophy.
If the Monarchs sweep, ODU and JMU will tie for the second consecutive year. The schools also tied last year for the trophy, thanks to a sweep by the baseball team of a three-game season-ending series in Harrisonburg.
Stallings graduated in the fall with a degree in leadership, and barring a pro baseball career, intends to head back to his roots.
“I want to be a blue-collar worker, working construction, or something like that,” he said. “I’ve thought a lot about being a fireman and my degree could help me there.
“I grew up on a farm. I like working with my hands.”
And has the scars to prove it.
Minium is ODU's Senior Executive Writer for Athletics. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram
To see past stories from Minium, CLICK HERE