The Old Dominion Monarchs come in for a 3-game CAA series today through Sunday. The Panthers are coming off one of the biggest road series wins in team history as they defeated JMU in Virginia in 2 games of the 3-game series. The Monarchs are coming off a home series win against Towson where they scored only 11 runs and allowed 8 against the weak Towson team.
The Panthers enter at 26-9 overall and 7-5 in CAA play. The Monarchs are 17-17 overall and 9-6 in CAA play. Old Dominion currently holds the 4th spot in the CAA which happens to be the final tournament spot and Georgia State is in 5th. Here's the best case scenario for Georgia State with the top 6 CAA teams. Delaware wins the series against Towson, I'd say Delaware losses but I'm being realistic here. GSU sweeps ODU, completely possible and I'll get to that in a minute. No sweep in the UNC-Wilmington vs William & Mary series. James Madison is off in CAA play this weekend. This scenario would leave us in 2nd in the CAA. We would have the same winning percentage as Delaware but we lose the tie-breaker to them since they took 2-of-3 against us. On to the preview.
Who: The Old Dominion Monarchs compete in the CAA with Georgia State. ODU is 17-17 overall and 9-6 in CAA conference play.
History/Common Opponents: Old Dominion leads the all-time series by 9-8. The Panthers are 7-6 against ODU under Coach Frady and are 2-1 at Panthersville. The home series win came in the CAA championship season of 2009. Last year the Panthers won 2-of-3 in Norfolk, VA. The two teams share 3 common opponents thus far in the 2011 season. James Madison, VCU and Towson.
JMU: GSU won 2-of-3, ODU won 2-of-3
VCU: GSU lost 2-of-3, ODU won 2-of-3
Towson: GSU won 3-of-3, ODU won 2-of-3
Old Dominion at the Plate: ODU is hitting a CAA-low .248 at the plate, almost 40 points below the league average of .286, and scoring 5.3 runs at the plate. The team has shown some power but not as much as the Panthers with 28 home runs. 10 of these have come from the bat of infielder RS-Jr. Josh Wright. Josh also leads the team with a .723 slugging percentage as he has 9 doubles and 4 triples. In addition, he leads the team with 13 stolen bases in 15 attempts. Bottom line, keep people off base in front of him and keep him off base. Josh is the only Monarch hitting above .300, but 1B Christopher Baker and OF Nathan Hartman are hitting .299 and .297. Christopher is the teams RBI leader with 35 and he’s tied for the most strikeouts at 32. Joshua Wright seems to be the offensive spark so keep him at bay and you’ll limit the damage their offense can do. There’s not much power or speed beyond him.
Old Dominion on the Mound: Pitching has been ODU’s saving grace for the poor offense this season. Their team ERA is 4.59 and they’re allowing 5.5 runs per game. Looking at the ODU pitching stat line is almost the exact same as the GSU version only we’ve allowed about half a run less per game. Starters as follows:
Kyle Hald (Sr., LH) – Kyle is 5-2 in 8 starts with a 2.78 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP. He has 71 strikeouts in 55 innings pitched and batters are hitting only .214 against him.
Ben Tomchick (Jr., RH) – 5-3 in 8 starts with a 3.04 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP. 44 strikeouts in his 50.1 innings pitched including 1 relief appearance. Batters are hitting .264 against him.
Phil McCarthy (Jr., LH) – Phil is 4-3 in 8 starts with 2 complete games. His ERA is a 4.41 and has a WHIP of 1.51. He’s thrown 32 strikeouts in his 51 innings pitched. Batters have the most success against him out of their weekend starters as they’re hitting .304 against him.
The Monarchs have an excellent relief pitcher in Dean Ali. Dean has made 14 relief appearances and 3 game starts accumulating 40 innings pitched. He’s allowed just 6 earned runs in those 4o innings for a 1.35 ERA. He has a WHIP of 1.1 and opposing batters are .234 against him. These pitchers, like GSU, do not give up the long ball. Again, this is a very evenly matched pitching game.
GSU at the Plate: The Panthers are hitting .316 as a team and scoring over 8 runs per game. If you read my post from earlier in the week it’s clear this is a top 10 offense in the NCAA, much more than ODU can say about their offense. Brandon Williams is now the team batting leader hitting .379 with Mark Micowski and Brett Maxwell on his heals at .366 and .363. The Panthers offense is more balanced than ODU. ODU has one real threat. The Panthers can hit, steal and knock runs in up and down the lineup. Ryan Fleming is still the RBI and home run leader with 42 RBIs and 11 home runs. The GSU offense will face one of the better pitching staffs they’ve seen this season so I expect a series average around 7 runs.
GSU on the Mound: The Panthers have a team ERA of 4.42 and have allowed 5.2 runs per game. Starters as follows:
Will Campbell (Sr., RH) – Will leads the CAA with a 6-0 record in 7 game starts. His ERA is 2.91 and he has a 0.95 WHIP. Opposing batters have been nothing but frustrated when facing will this season as he’s allowed just a .199 batting average. He has 31 strikeouts in his 46.1 innings pitched.
Charley Olson (Sr., RH) – Charley is coming off a complete game win against James Madison last Saturday. He has evened his record at 3-3 with a 3.59 ERA and a 1.3 WHIP. Opposing batters are hitting .283 against him and he has 40 strikeouts in 47.2 innings.
Justin Malone (Jr., RH) – Justin is 5-0 with a 4.53 record. He is coming off a good outing blemished by one bad inning against the powerful James Madison offense. He allowed them 5 runs in 5.1 innings. Justin has a WHIP of 1.5 and batters are hitting .324 against him.
Look for Nick Squeglia, Jake Dyer and Sam Agnew-Wieland to provide relief for the starters this weekend. All three have been nothing short of outstanding in their contributions to the pitching staff this season. The three have ERAs of 2.97, 1.86 and 2.16 respectively.
If you’re into pitching this series is for you. Because of the great advantage the Panthers hold due to their offense, I see no reason why a series win will not happen. A series sweep is within reach if the Panthers pitchers can keep ODU’s Josh Wright from causing much damage. The Panthers have too many offensive weapons for ODU to overcome. Look for the Panthers to be back in a tournament spot after Sunday. Let’s hope this forecasted rain doesn’t cause us to have any issues on the field or with games being canceled. GO PANTHERS!!!
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