Pirate Baseball Hosts Charlotte In Conference USA Weekend Series
March 20, 2003 | Baseball
East Carolina (14-6-1, 2-1 C-USA) won two of three games in its conference opening series against defending regular season champion Houston last weekend, winning games one and three. The Pirates are currently in a four-way tie for third place in the league standings with a 2-1 record along with Louisville, TCU and UAB. Southern Miss and South Florida both have unblemished conference marks.
Charlotte (6-9, 0-2 C-USA) comes into the weekend series without a Conference USA victory as it dropped a pair of games to South Florida a week ago. While, the Pirates enter the weekend with six wins in their last eight games, Charlotte has dropped six of its last eight.
Senior right-hander Neal Sears (1-1, 2.64) will start for the Pirates on Friday night in the series opener. This will be his seventh appearance of the season and sixth start of the year. It'll also be his 81st career appearance, which will set a new ECU career mark. In his last outing, March 15 vs. Houston, Sears tossed five shutout innings and struck out a trio of Cougars. Sears has hurled 12 consecutive scoreless innings since giving up two runs in the first inning against William & Mary back on March 4. Either Zachary Treadway or Matt Savage will start for Charlotte.
Junior left-hander Ashley Capps (3-1, 1.72) will likely be the Pirates' starter on Saturday. Capps has made five appearances, three of them starts, and has tossed 15.2 innings, allowed five runs, walked seven and struck out nine. Capps lasted just three innings in his most recent outing, March 15 vs. Houston, allowing two runs on five hits. However, in his last start at Harrington Field, Capps was simply brilliant. He gave up just one hit in seven innings of work and tied his career-high for strikeouts with five against Appalachian State. Freshman Julian Sides (1-1, 4.61) is the scheduled starter for Charlotte.
Game three's starters have not been determined, but the Pirates will either go with senior right-hander Will Brinson or Davey Penny. Either Treadway or Savage will be on the mound for Charlotte.
The Pirates hold an 11-1 lead in the overall series with Charlotte. The Pirates won the first 10 meetings in the series before dropping the second game of last season's series, which ECU won, 2-1. East Carolina is 6-0 all-time at Harrington Field against the 49ers.
The 49ers come into the series batting .268 as team and have just two everyday players batting over .300. Freshman infielder Adam Floyd leads the 'Niners in hitting with a .348 batting average, while junior outfielder Thomas Bowker is second with a .309 average. Junior Brian Scafe has hit three home runs and driven 12 runs to lead the squad in both long balls and RBIs. Senior Brad Lamm has also driven a dozen runs this season.
On the mound, Charlotte possesses a very young group of hurlers. Of its 10 roster pitchers, five are freshmen and only two are seniors. As a team, the 49ers have a lofty 4.30 earned run average and opposing hitters are batting .277 against the youthful staff. Freshman Erik Walker posts the team's lowest ERA at 2.76. He is only player on the staff to have an ERA of less than 3.30.
Pitching has been the key to success for East Carolina. The Pirates sport the lowest ERA in Conference USA at 2.52. ECU's hurlers have held their opponents to two runs or less in three of the past four games, which included a 1-0 shutout victory over Houston this past Friday. Glenn Tucker, Capps and Penny all boast ERAs under two.
Offensively, the Pirates have done just enough to win. East Carolina is hitting .266 as a team this season. Junior Jamie Paige leads the Pirates with a .333 batting average, while sophomores Ryan Norwood (.329) and Darryl Lawhorn (.309) follow behind. Lawhorn and Norwood are tied for the Conference USA lead in home runs with five each, along with six other players.
Paige has hit safely in 13 of the past 14 games to boost his average by over 100 points, while junior Ryan Jones has also been swinging a hot bat. Over the past eight games, Jones is hitting .363 (12-of-33) with five multi-hit games.
East Carolina is 10-3 at Harrington Field this season and has won all three weekend series played at home this season.
