Pirates Open C-USA Play at Houston
March 14, 2003 | Baseball
at Cougar Field
Friday, March 14, 8 p.m. ET
Penny (2-2, 2.66) vs. Sullivan
Saturday, March 15, 8 p.m. ET
TBA vs. Zell
Sunday, March 16, 2 p.m. ET
TBA vs. Mock
Picking Up Where We Left Off
East Carolina travels to Houston for the first rematch of last season's Conference USA championship game between two of the league's premier baseball programs. Last season, the Pirates won two of three games against the then-No. 5 ranked Cougars during the regular season, then upset top-seeded Houston, 4-0, in the championship game of the C-USA Tournament. This weekend's three-game series represents the first C-USA action of 2003 for both teams.
In The Polls
While both teams have appeared in national polls early this season, neither is ranked entering this weekend. The Pirates have been ranked as high as No. 30 by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) this season and was No. 36 in the preseason Collegiate Baseball poll. East Carolina has been ranked in the top 30 of at least one of the three final major national baseball polls for each of the past four seasons. ECU finished with a national ranking of No. 24 in the Baseball Weekly/ESPN Coaches poll at the end of the 2002 season.
On The Air
All three of this weekend's games will be available throughout eastern North Carolina on the newly expanded Pirate Sports Network. Carrying over 30 games on the network this year are WGHB (1250 AM) in Farmville/Greenville, WRUP (97.9 FM) in New Bern/Morehead City, and WSTK (910 AM) in Jacksonville. Dan Eberhard will call the play-by-play with Craig Wells, ECU's director of media relations, contributing color analysis. All games on the Pirate Sports Network can be heard live on the internet through ECUpirates.com, the official web site of ECU athletics.
On The World Wide Web
Live scoring and statistical play-by-play will be available for all three of this weekend's games on the internet through the official web site of the Pirates, ECUpirates.com. The statistical feed, which updates live after each batter, is made possible through a direct connection from the official statistician's scorebook computer and will be available for a majority of ECU's home and road games in 2003.
