No. 8 Old Dominion (29-25, 15-15 Sun Belt) vs. No. 9 Georgia State (26-28, 14-16 Sun Belt)
Game Location – DABOS Park (Montgomery, Ala.)
When – Tuesday, May 19 at 7:30 p.m. ET
Watch – ESPN+
Listen – Fox Sports Radio 1310 AM
Live Stats – Click Here
Social Media – Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – No. 8 seed Old Dominion Baseball begins play at this year’s Sun Belt Conference Championship with a single-elimination game against No. 9 seed Georgia State this Tuesday at DABOS Park, formerly Riverwalk Stadium, home of the AA Montgomery Biscuits.
Tuesday’s game is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. ET start and will be streamed on ESPN+. Ted Alexander will cover the action on Fox Sports Radio 1310 AM and live stats will also be available.
Presented by Troy University, the 10-team conference tournament runs from May 19-24 with the championship game scheduled for 2 p.m. ET next Sunday. To view the tournament schedule, bracket, ticket information and more, visit the Sun Belt’s Championship Central page here.
The Series
ODU made the trip to Atlanta, Georgia on April 24-26 and won the series opener 10-2, but GSU evened the series with a 10-4 final that Saturday. In the rubber match, the Silver and Blue took a 7-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning, but the Panthers scored five runs to force extras and walked off the Monarchs with a solo home run in the 10th inning.
The two teams have previously met 39 times, with Georgia State holding a slight 20-19 lead in the all-time series. Tuesday will mark the first time the two programs will meet in a conference championship since squaring off in the 2011 CAA Tournament, which was hosted by UNCW. ODU won that game 7-3 on Friday, May 27 as right-hander Ben Tomchick tossed a complete game six-hitter and first baseman Chris Baker tallied three hits and drove in three runs. The Monarchs and Panthers met three times at the CAA Tournament: Georgia State edged ODU, 6-5 in 2006 and ODU defeated Georgia State, 5-2 in 2007.
Around the Horn
The Monarchs (29-25, 15-15 Sun Belt) capped off the regular season by winning two of three games against James Madison in a TowneBank Royal Rivalry series at the Ellmer Family Baseball Complex. ODU won the series opener, 5-1 last Thursday and then run-ruled the Dukes, 10-0 last Friday. JMU avoided the series sweep though with a 7-3 final last Saturday.
The Sun Belt announced its postseason honors on Monday, with Will Johnson earning a spot on the All-Conference Second Team and Ben Tanton voted to the All-Conference Freshman Team. ODU won seven of its last 10 games in the regular season and also won four of its last five conference series. The Monarchs also posted a 19-14 record at home and had three wins over ranked opponents, defeating No. 8 Southern Miss 10-8 on April 3 and upsetting No. 8 Coastal Carolina 6-3 on May 9 and 9-2 on May 10. It marked the program’s first series win over a Top 10 team since the Monarchs won two of three games at No. 7 Southern Miss on May 6-8, 2022.
Leading ODU at the plate are Efrain Morales (.353), Johnson (.347), Maverick Stallings (.320), and Zach Leite (.310). Leite ranks second in the Sun Belt and 25th nationally with 66 RBIs. The Dana Point, California native is also second in the conference with 1.22 RBIs per game and the Sun Belt leader in sacrifice flies with six. Stallings leads the Monarchs with 11 home runs and 15 doubles, while Johnson and TJ Aiken (.233) have scored 43 runs each. Aiken ranks third in the SBC with 43 walks and 0.80 walks per game and is ODU’s top base stealer with 15 swiped bags on 19 attempts. Nick Felton (.267) enters the week ranked fourth in the country with 0.29 sac bunts per game and is also fifth with 13 sac bunts.
Right-hander Darin Kuskie (4-7, 7.25 ERA) will get the start for the Monarchs. The junior from Damascus, Maryland has allowed 50 runs, 47 of them earned, on 77 hits and 22 walks in 13 starts and 14 appearances. He leads the team with 62 strikeouts through 58.1 innings pitched. Tanton is 7-0 with one save a 1.87 ERA and Kellen Davis (0-1, 4.66 ERA) leads the team with three saves. The Monarchs have a team ERA of 6.17 with opponents hitting .294 against them.
As a team, the Monarchs have the fourth-best batting average in the league at .284. They also rank fourth with a .389 on-base percentage and own a .412 slugging percentage. ODU scores 6.5 runs per game while allowing 6.8 runs. ODU is currently 100th in the RPI rankings.
Scouting Georgia State
The Panthers (26-28, 14-16 Sun Belt) hosted App State last weekend, taking two of three games from the Mountaineers. After dropping the series opener 12-2, GSU bounced back with a 4-2 win in game two and then took the rubber match, 3-2. Trailing 2-0 through four innings, the Panthers scored a run in the fifth, seventh, and eighth innings to complete the comeback and win the series.
GSU has three starters hitting over .300: John Beverley (.366), Cole Griffith (.311), and Wills Maginnis (.302). Additionally, Brandon Davis has a .333 batting average through seven starts and 16 appearances. Maginnis was the lone Panther to garner all-conference honors as he was selected to the All-Sun Belt First Team. His regular season totals included eight home runs, one triple, 12 doubles, 45 runs, 41 RBIs, and 21 stolen bases. Beverley has also scored 45 runs and ranks 16th in Division I with 35 stolen bases and 20th nationally with 0.66 steals per game. Nick Garagozzo (.244) leads the Sun Belt and is 19th in the country with five triples and 23rd with 0.10 triples per game.
Georgia State will start right-hander Cole Roberts, who is 1-3 with a 5.84 ERA through 13 starts. He has allowed 43 runs, 40 of them earned, on 60 hits and 22 walks while recording 54 strikeouts in 61.2 innings pitched. As a team, the Panthers have a combined ERA of 6.17 with opponents hitting .250 against them. They have also hit the most batters in the league and the 11th-most in the country at 110.
GSU ranks third in the Sun Belt in double plays (45), double plays per game (0.83), hits allowed per nine innings (8.44), sac bunts (44), and triples (13). The team is also fourth in the league in stolen bases (89), stolen bases per game (1.65), and triples per game (0.24). The Panthers are currently 132nd in RPI.
Up Next
No. 7 seed Louisiana faces No. 10 seed Marshall in Tuesday’s other single-elimination game, which will start at 4 p.m. ET. The two winning teams will advance to the tournament’s double-elimination bracket, with the higher-seeded winner playing No. 2 seed Coastal Carolina on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. ET. The lower-seeded winner will face regular season champion Southern Miss at 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday.