Pirates Conclude Regular Season With Three-Game Series At Tulane
May 15, 2003 | Baseball
Friday, May 16 vs. Tulane, 7:30 p.m. [PSN]
Saturday, May 17 vs. Tulane, 3:00 p.m. [PSN]
PSN = Pirate Sports Network radio broadcast
East Carolina will close out the 2003 regular season with a three-game Conference USA series in New Orleans against Tulane beginning Thursday. This will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools as they missed one another last season due to the league's rotating schedule. The Pirates are coming off a 2-1 series win over UAB at Harrington Field this past weekend, while the Green Wave dropped two of three on the road at Louisville. Tulane hosts the University of New Orleans on Tuesday night before taking on the Pirates, while ECU doesn't have a midweek game scheduled.
The Records
ECU, 30-21-1 overall and 16-11 in Conference USA, begins the conference weekend in fifth place in the league standings. The Pirates are one game behind Houston for fourth place and two games back of Tulane for third place in the standings. The Green Wave has a conference mark of 18-9 and an overall record of 37-15 entering its game Tuesday night against UNO.
On The Air
All three games of the Tulane series 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. 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 four of this week'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.
The Rankings
Tulane is ranked 24th in the latest USA Today Sports Weekly/ESPN Top 25 Coaches poll. ECU is not ranked.
The Series
There are no previous meetings between the two teams.
Scouting The Green Wave
Not only is Tulane one of the best hitting teams in Conference USA, but also in the country. The Green Wave ranks 26th in the latest NCAA statistical reports with a .318 team batting average. All-America candidate Michael Aubrey leads the conference in hitting with a .433 batting average and also leads the league in hits (88) and RBI (72). Five of the Green Wave's everyday players are hitting .318 or higher with two of them having swiped over 20 bases this season, Jonny Kaplan (41) and Tony Giarratano (22). Much of the reason that Tulane success this season has been due to its ability to win at home. The Green Wave has won 23 consecutive games at home and has an overall record of 28-1 at Turchin Stadium this season. Tulane also has a solid pitching staff with a team ERA of 4.03. It has a pair of seven-game winners, including eight-game winner Cory Hahn. J.R. Crowel is a perfect 7-0 in 13 starts this year with a 3.09 ERA. Joey Charron ranks third in C-USA with 10 saves in 2003.
