Injury-riddled ODU looks to finish baseball regular season strong, make noise in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament

NORFOLK — After a strong start to the season, Old Dominion’s baseball team fell ill to the injury bug and will have to claw its way through the Sun Belt Conference Tournament next week.

“Sometimes seasons you know, you gotta get a little lucky on the injury front, and we’ve had a couple of years where we’ve had that, so this year was not,” coach Chris Finwood said. “It’s baseball. Sometimes it doesn’t work out that way, you just gotta keep plugging away.”

The Monarchs enter Thursday night’s series opener at home against Georgia State at 31-20 overall and 14-13 in the conference — eighth in the standings.

ODU needs a strong performance in its final series of the regular season to make the conference’s top six to avoid playing in the single-elimination play-in portion of the Sun Belt tournament.

“You’re gonna have some guys step up, they’re gonna have to elevate,” Finwood said. “Sometimes in conference tournaments young guys that have been just kind of working their way into it, all of a sudden get an opportunity, and their stars kind of rise. That’s fun to watch when it happens. We’ve got a couple of kids that are certainly capable of that. We’ll see if they can do it.”

Sophomore pitcher Blake Morgan was the most recent Monarch to go down with an injury. Morgan tore his ACL and meniscus Sunday during Old Dominion’s win over James Madison while covering first base, Finwood said.

Morgan — an All-American and Conference USA’s Freshman of the Year last season — was going through a sophomore slump and saw his ERA reach as high as 6.84. But Finwood said he was starting to show signs of improvement.

“There’s a reason (sophomore slump is) a term,” Finwood said. “No one expected Blake to go 8-1 with a 1.69 (last year) — that was unreasonable. That was one of the best years of any pitcher I’ve ever seen, especially a freshman. Blake, he did get stronger, the fastball velocity went up and I think he lost some of his pitch ability along with it. But he was trending in the right direction … He was moving the needle back to more like Blake.”

Junior Jake Ticer and senior Camden Grimes also missed chunks of time this season with injuries.

Grimes’ batting average was close to .300 when he hurt his knee, causing him to miss some time in April. He hasn’t quite been the same since returning, Finwood said, and is currently hitting .244. Ticer has missed about three weeks due to injury but is still second on the team in home runs (16) and second in batting average (.302).

He’s appeared in only three games since April 25, but Finwood is hopeful that he’ll be back in the lineup soon.

“That would be a big bat obviously,” Finwood said. “Just the threat of him in the lineup I think sometimes changes things.”

Despite the injuries, Old Dominion’s team batting average of .291 is fifth in the Sun Belt and its slugging percentage of .524 is second.

Junior Hunter Fitz-Gerald has continued his dominance at the plate, landing in the top 10 of the Sun Belt in seven statistical categories. His 21 home runs are second in the conference and tied for 12th in the country.

Fellow junior Kenny Levari is having a career year, improving his batting average to .324 from .266 last year.

“I think my mindset, just not worrying about the results as much as trusting the process and just sticking to my approach,” Levari said of his improvement. “If I have a bad game, know that not all 0-for-4s are equal. I could go 0 for 4 with lineouts and take that into the next day knowing that I’m seeing the ball well and feeling good.”

On the mound, junior Sam Armstrong has has made 13 starts and is 9-2 with a 3.20 ERA — fourth in the conference.

“I definitely gained some confidence in how I am as a pitcher and my identity as a pitcher based on last year,” Armstrong said. “A lot of it was mental, a handful of physical things like being a little bit more in shape and mixing up some mechanics. But most of it was just how I attack hitters, go about my mentality on the mound and acting like I’m the best guy out there.”

The Monarchs’ only chance at making the NCAA Tournament is to win the conference tournament.

“It’s just coming down to how bad you want it I think at this point,” Armstrong said. “We’re all great baseball players. Pitching staff is great, the position players can hit very well. So it’s playing the best baseball you can and leaving it all out in the field.”

Michael Sauls, 757-803-5774, michael.sauls@virginiamedia.com