Good morning! There are a few things that take three minutes every morning—waiting for the coffee machine to brew that pivotal first pot, working up the energy to turn your phone off Airplane Mode, and watching Nick Saldiveri make his appearance on Good Morning Football.

(The eating contest discussion alone is worth your time.)

What else did we throw into today’s Brew?

🏆 And the award goes to…
⚾ ODU gives VCU a royal send off
🎾 Sun Belt Championship on the line
👑 And much, much more!

📈 STOCK UP

🔼 Royal Send Off. Old Dominion baseball needed a get right game. Old Dominion baseball got a get a right game. An Alex Bouche grand slam in the sixth inning highlighted the Monarchs’ 11-4 win over VCU last night at The Diamond.

ODU started the game hot, quickly loading the bases in the top of the first inning as Luke Waters walked, Kenny Levari singled through the left side, and Camden Grimes was hit by a pitch. A Hunter Fitz-Gerald sacrifice fly to left opened the scoring, and another two hit batters gave the Monarchs a 2-0 lead.

A few innings later in the fourth, two walks and a Luke Waters double to right center pushed the ODU lead to 4-0 in the top of the fourth. Alex Bouche made it 5-0 in the fifth as he scored on a Thomas Wheeler double to left. Camden Grimes and Hunter Fitz-Gerald drew back-to-back walks to load the bases and Alex Bouche brought everyone home with his 10th home run of the season.

Jake Ticer then went back-to-back as his solo home run to right gave ODU a 10-0 advantage.

VCU finally broke up the shutout bid with a three-run bottom of the sixth. Both sides then plated one run each in the eighth as Hunter Fitz-Gerald homered to center field and the Rams got back a run with two walks and a base hit to left field.

ODU returns to its home field this weekend to host Texas State for a Sun Belt series. It will mark the first-ever meeting between the two programs.

🔼 Handing Out Hardware. Earlier this week, Old Dominion hosted its annual Golden Monarch Awards ceremony and highlighted some of the biggest moments in sports from the 2022 season. Leading the pack? Jason Henderson, who led the country (we double checked, this is not a typo) with 186 tackles and obliterated the school’s single-season record, and Tatsiana Sasnouskaya, who was ranked in the top-35 nationally and reached as high as No. 20 in the country in women’s tennis.

Some other kings and queens who were honored included…

• Female Freshman of the Year - Sanci Molkenboer (Field Hockey)

• Mr. Monarch - Younes Lalami (Men's Tennis)

• Best Individual Performance - Carla Morich (Women's Soccer)

• Community Service - Katie McGrain (Women's Lacrosse)

Learn all the winners at the Golden Monarch Awards ceremony here.

🔼 Set The Stage. After the women’s tennis team locked up the No. 1 seed last weekend, they’ll finally learn who they’ll be facing in the Sun Belt Championship Quarterfinals tomorrow at 10:00 am ET. Whoever wins between eighth-seeded Troy and ninth-seeded Texas State will face the Monarchs in the following round. The ladies haven’t faced Troy at all this season but are very familiar with Texas State, who they beat 4-3 earlier in the year.

🔼 Draft Day. With the NFL Draft kicking off Thursday night, three Monarchs will be taking center stage looking to fulfill their childhood dreams. Offensive lineman Nick Saldiveri, tight end Zack Kuntz, and cornerback Tre Hawkins III hope to hear their names called this weekend. Curious about what it takes to make the leap to professional football? A day in the life of Zack Kuntz’s offseason workout was recently documented with Adam Breneman.

🤔 MONARCH TRIVIA

Gridiron king. Jason Henderson put together a season to remember as he finished the year with 11 double-digit tackle games and set an ODU single-game record with 22 tackles against Georgia Southern in 2022.

Here’s today’s question…

For the 2020-2021 season, who was the male athlete to win the same Athlete of the Year award?

Think you got it? Scroll down to the bottom of this email for the answer!

👑 ONE BIG THING

Better late than never. A (belated) birthday shoutout to Old Dominion women’s basketball’s Jordan McLaughlin! In a team-high 34 games this past season, she put together a season-best 21 points against Marshall. On the year, she averaged nearly 30 minutes of playtime per game, and the team is better for it.

📬 STICK WITH US

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📅 THE DAY AHEAD

Wednesday 4/26

⛳ Men’s Golf @ Sun Belt Conference Championship on ESPN+ | Live Video | Live Stats

🎉 TRIVIA ANSWER

Answer: Peter Durisin, Men’s Swimming

Peter Durisin capped off his senior season in style, winning the 100m and 200m breaststroke in the CCSA Championships.

Have a great Wednesday, y’all.